A mailing list system enabling consummatory communication

There are two types of human group communication, instrumental communication and consummatory communication. People appropriately select these communication types based on their purposes. The main purpose of the former type is to exchange and share information among the group members. On the other hand, people mainly enjoy sharing the atmosphere of the latter type of communication and are not always especially concerned about information exchanging. Conventional mailing list systems are not well suited for the latter type, since they deliver e-mails even to members who are not interested in the content/topic of the e-mails. As a means of solving this problem, we propose a mailing list management method named the session-call method which dynamically changes delivery group members in accordance with recipients' requests. It has been shown that the method is a useful means to help users enjoy consummatory communication, especially users of intelligent mobile phone terminals. We have developed a prototype system that makes use of the method and experimentally confirmed its effectiveness in preventing the distribution of unwanted e-mails.