Communication Modes and Task Performance
By J. Short, E. Williams, and B Christie
Sep 15, 1999

Communication is affected by factors of the medium. These effects can be classified in the following:

Presence. The presence of others affects behavior of persons.

Conformity. The conformity of an individual is also affected by the medium. People would agree or disagree

Anonymity (email). Anonymity affects the behavior of the people. I think is because the risk and the responsibility of one's actions are reduced. However here the authors try to associate the anonymity with an increase or decrease in conformity.

Information Transmission (no feed back required). Some kinds of communications require immediate feedback. This kind of interactions are most affected when the medium is limited (i.e. no video is available). However other communications do not require so much feedback and therefore can proceed easier even in limited mediums.

Is less-rich media more efficient?

Wouldn't it be that it is too expensive (or uncomfortable) to communicate through limited mediums?