MD 240 Network Computing: Discovery, Communication, and Collaboration

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MD 240Network Computing Discovery,
Communication, and Collaboration
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Agenda

• The Work World Without the Web
• Background on Networks
• Discovery
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Applications of D, C C Distance Learning

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The Work World Without the Web
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Pre-WWW Work EnvironmentDiscovery,
Communication, Collaboration

• Meet with someone face-to-face, ask them a
  question (if you can catch them when theyre in)
• Library - travel there and physically search
• Write a letter, put it in an envelope, mail it
• Phone
• Fax
• Travel to meetings
• Networking meant Lets have lunch sometime!

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Pre-WWW Work EnvironmentDiscovery,
Communication, Collaboration

• Downsides
• Time-consuming
• Lots of travel required
• Slow physical delivery 2-5 days via USPS
• Inefficient, difficult work physical search
• Expensive required extra
• Sometimes travel expenses were misused for fun
• Upsides
• Social contact relationships
• Rich human-to-human communication

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The Vision

• Discovery
• Low cost/no effort
• Very flexible
• Search and find by content or terms
• Semantic search by context or meaning
• Document-to-Document Linkages
• One-way
• Two-way
• Communication/Collaboration
• Minimal travel low cost
• Maximum flexibility and functionality
• If traveling, you can connect to it and use it
  wherever you are

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The Visionaries

• Vannevar Bush - 1945
• vision of machines for information storage and
  retrieval, research dissemination
• Project Xanadu - 1960s - present
• two-way inter-linkages between documents
• relationships between information in multiple
  documents
• Tim Berners-Lee - 1989
• WWW proposal to CERN
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) a simpler
  system to get and put documents for storage
  and retrieval
• The Semantic Web a next generation WWW he is
  developing now

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Background on Networks
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The Internet
The Internet is a global network of computer
networks. It links the computing resources of
business, government, and educational
institutions using a common computer
communication protocol.
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Intranets
Intranets are internal network architectures
designed to serve the internal informational
needs of a company Intranets are built using
WWW concepts, technologies and tools.
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Extranets
An Extranet is an infrastructure that allows
secure communications among business partners.
Extranets extend an Intranet, providing a way
for customers and/or suppliers to access internal
information contained within your organizations
Intranet.
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Corporate Portals

• A corporate portal is a personalized, single
  point of access through which customers,
  suppliers and employees can access critical
  business information about a company.
• An extended form of Intranet that offer employees
  and customers an organized focal point for their
  interactions with the firm.
• Ties together resources from disparate IT systems
  within the organization.

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Internet vs. Intranet vs. Extranet
Company A
Company As Intranet
Extranet
Internet WWW
Company Bs Intranet
Company B
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The InternetCharacteristics and Capabilities

• Easy access to the Internet via many different
  technologies (channels)
• Internet (network) terminals
• Personal computers
• Laptops (wireless modem)
• Kiosks (airport)
• TV access (WebTV)
• Phone access (WAP web enabled PCS)
• Standard protocol underlying all Internet
  activities
• TCP/IP (transaction control protocol/ internet
  protocol)

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The InternetBenefits

• Messages - low cost messaging
• Access to government information
• Library of Congress
• Forums for communication
• Download documents and software
• Electronic commerce
• Access to newspapers, magazines, and books

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The InternetBenefits

• Cultural events
• Entertainment
• Collaborative research
• Free telephone call and video conferencing
• Access to museums worldwide
• Web translators - access to information in other
  languages

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What Networks Facilitate

• Discovery
• Communication
• Collaboration

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Discovery
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Discovery Via the Web

• Discovery is the process of finding stuff of
  interest or of use
• The Resource
• WWW - is a vast collection of interconnected
  pages of information that are stored (or
  generated from programs and databases) on Web
  server computers around the world.
• The Problem
• All of the information in these pages is
  unstructured or takes a variety of structures.
• There is no perfect index or card catalog for
  it.

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Supporting DiscoveryVia the Web

• Storing retrieving information in WWW documents
• Hypertext
• save information in text file (.html)
• Hyperlinks
• link to related resources of which you are aware
• Upload text file (.html) to a Web Site
• A directory on a computer
• A URL
• Client / server architecture
• WWW server software runs 7/24/365 on a server
  computer, listens to Internet port, waiting for
  a get or put message from another computer
  (the client browser)

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Supporting DiscoveryBenefits of the Web

• Open
• Broader access to information
• Resourceful
• Provides tools for discovery of information
• Efficient
• Less costly than searching by hand
• Dynamic
• Result of your search/discovery process is
  immediate

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Supporting DiscoveryWWW Technologies

• Downloading software and files
• FTP file transfer protocol
• Anonymous FTP used to be the way to find stuff
  people stored for public use
• Gopher (U of Minnesota)
• primitive, not enough acorns of info., basically
  dead
• Web Browsers (U of Illinois)
• HTTP get or put using the URL (uniform
  resource locator)
• FTP, TELNET and other programs right from within
  browser
• Search engines
• Google (www.google.com)
• Meta-Search engines
• search across WWW search engines, EX Dogpile
  (www.dogpile.com)
• BC Database Meta-Search Engine being beta tested
  Fall 2001

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Internet-based Software AgentsTechnology for
Discovery About Self or About WWW Sites Youve
Visited

• Software that rides on top of and monitors other
  software applications
• E-mail program
• WWW browser
• WWW sites
• Collects data on what you do (or other info.)
• Determines patterns in your behavior (or across
  sites, etc.)
• Generalizes about your past behavior to predict
  future behavior
• Examples
• E-mail agents
• Web-browsing-assisting agents
• Intelligent indexing agents

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Internet-based Software AgentsTechnology for
Discovery About Self or About WWW Sites Youve
Visited

• Corporate technologies
• Ex Jupiter MediaMetrix
• Uses a software agent installed on consumer
  desktop computers to monitor the Web browser
  activities in 10,000 consumer households
• Sells this data, and research based on the data,
  to corporate marketing researchers
• Ex NetRatings/AC Nielsens eRatings.com
• Use systems similar to above

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Discovery Internet-based Data Mining

• Resource discovery
• End User mine information about interests,
  companies, etc.
• Company mine information about users, customers,
  WWW site operations, etc.
• Information extraction
• Many companies now use WWW spiders to monitor
  Websites where contract RFPs are posted
• Generalization
• Company predicts future customer behavior

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DiscoveryInternet-based Data Mining

• Ex FBI
• Carnivore captures suspects emails, processes
  them to identify evidence of crime
• Ex CIA
• Fluent scours foreign WWW sites, translates
  text, displays it in English for CIA agents
• Oasis listens to worldwide television
  broadcasts and radio broadcasts (now often
  streamed over the WWW), transcribes content and
  generates reports for CIA analysts

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Communication
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Communication

• Communication is an interpersonal process of
  sending and receiving symbols with messages
  attached to them.
• Verbal words (symbols alphabet and
  numbers messages meaning of words)
• Nonverbal smiles ( symbol message Im
  happy), sweating on the brow, pulsing veins on
  the neck, wringing of hands, spatial relationship
  to others

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Communication
Place
Same
Different
Same
Time
Different
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CommunicationProblems with IT for Communication

• Some communication methods are better at
  communicating verbal messages, others are better
  at communicating nonverbal messages
• Ideally, we would like to convey both verbal and
  nonverbal symbols in a way that their messages
  are unambiguous
• But, unambiguous messages are difficult to convey
  even in the non-digital world

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Supporting CommunicationFactors Determining the
Uses of Information Technology

• Important Factors in Communication IT
• Participants
• of participants
• Communication styles most comfortable with
• Nature of sources and destinations
• Location
• Time
• Synchronous (real-time) communication
• Asynchronous (different times) communication
• Media

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Supporting CommunicationWWW Technologies

• Newsgroups
• Mailing lists and electronic bulletin boards
• Electronic mail - e-mail
• Internet and intranet (POP, IMAP)
• SMS messaging on WAP cellphones (i-Mode text
  messages)
• Blackberry email clients (and similar competing
  devices)
• Chat programs/Instant Messaging
• Web-site Java applets for chatting
• Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
• ICQ (I seek you) even includes SMS messaging
  now
• AOL IM, MSN Messenger, etc.
• Video Chat
• CUSeeMe and similar applications

Synchronous
Asynchronous
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Supporting CommunicationWWW Technologies

• Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
• Systems that directly connect from two to a large
  number of small computer systems
• Facilitate file sharing (e.g., Napster, Gnutella,
  BearShare), application sharing (e.g., Groove)
• Electronic Voice Communication
• Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR)
• Voice Annotation
• Automated Attendant
• Voice Mail
• Audiotext
• Web Based Call Centers
• Simultaneous voice/Web systems that enhance
  corporate call centers (e.g., VoiceXML based
  systems)

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Collaboration
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Collaboration

• Collaboration refers to the mutual efforts by
  two or more individuals who perform activities in
  order to accomplish certain tasks ...
• Project Teams
• Managers
• Members of team
• Clients of team (end users, external customers)
• Task SDLC consulting project

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CollaborationProblems with Collaboration

• Teams often dont work in an ideal manner
• Conflicting schedules
• Conflicting personalities
• Members who are forgetful
• Huge number of participants, too many agenda
  items, many objectives of project, meetings to go
  to, etc.

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CollaborationOld vs. New Methods and Technologies

• OLD Conventional approach
• Person-to-Person techniques, often iterative
  processes, often time consuming
• Nominal group technique
• Delphi method
• NEW Using IT to support groupwork
• Lots of software tools for collaboration
• Synchronous use of tools
• Asynchronous use of tools

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CollaborationGroupware Technologies and
Infrastructure

• Workflow systems
• ERoom, Visto.com, Lotus Notes
• Screen sharing
• Expression, NetMeeting
• Whiteboarding
• Visual communication
• CUSeeMe
• Electronic voice communication
• CUSeeMe, NetMeeting
• Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS)
• Integrated technologies
• Intranet and extranet
• Intranets.com

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Collaboration Technologies Lotus Notes
Lotus notes is a Windows-based client/server
platform for developing and deploying groupware
applications.

• Capabilities
• Tracking
• Team discussion
• Broadcasting
• References

• Application categories
• Things to do
• Contract library
• Corporate policy documents
• Notes databases
• Discussion databases
• Document libraries
• Information services

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Collaboration TechnologiesGroove Networks P2P
Browser

• Beverly, MA company founded by inventor of Lotus
  Notes
• Integrates together COM software objects on
  different users desktops using a variant of XML
• Messages are passed between desktops to
  synchronize the global collaboration system
• Microsoft just invested 51 Million
• Uses collaborative product design (CAD
  systems), MS Word document markup and editing,
  chat, etc.
• Customers
• Dell (just bought 10,000 licenses _at_ 96/lic/yr),
  DARPA, GlaxoSmithKline
• More info
• www.groove.net -- to download Groove
• www.groovenetworks.com -- more information on
  P2P, etc.

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Collaboration TechnologiesLockheed Martin

• Product Design at Lockheed Martin
• Using Web collaboration to manage 200 Billion
  contract for next-generation Joint Strike Fighter
  plane
• To manage this project
• Using 90 Web collaboration tools to share
  designs, track the exchange of documents, track
  progress
• Collaboration tools allow interaction between
• 40,000 end user computers,
• 80 suppliers at 187 locations in 26 states and 3
  countries
• 12 major customers (Army, Navy, UK, France, etc.)
  
• (Keenan, F. and S.E. Ante, The New Teamwork,
  BusinessWeek e.biz, Feb. 18, 2002, p. EB12-EB16)

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Collaboration TechnologiesMicrosoft Xbox Project

• Product Design at Microsoft
• Microsoft and Flextronics used Web collaboration
  tools to decrease project completion time by 2
  months
• Rapid prototyping of Xbox units
• Collaborative CAD of Xbox parts
• Collaborative sign-off of engineering design
  changes
• Immediate availability of engineering design
  change to Flextronics manufacturing
• (Keenan, F. and S.E. Ante, The New Teamwork,
  BusinessWeek e.biz, Feb. 18, 2002, p. EB12-EB16)

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Collaboration TechnologiesGeneral Motors

• Product Design at GM
• In 1999, had Electronic Data Systems (EDS) build
  them a Web collaboration system for car design
• Share 3D designs and engineering documents
  between
• 16,000 designers
• 14 engineering sites around the world
• Dozens of partners involved in each design
• Payback
• Prototyping lead time cut from 12 weeks to 2
  weeks
• Ability to prototype many more car designs
• Car production lead time cut from 42 months (in
  mid 1990s) to 12 months
• (Keenan, F. and S.E. Ante, The New Teamwork,
  BusinessWeek e.biz, Feb. 18, 2002, p. EB12-EB16)

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Collaboration TechnologiesCollaborative Supply
Chain Mgmt.

• Land OLakes Georgia-Pacific
• Collaborative SCM software from Nistevo, Inc.
  (250,000/year 75,000 installation fee)
• Use collaboration software to match up partial
  truckloads from each company
• Fill up empty space in a truck with the other
  companys partial truck load
• Georgia-Pacific has saved 600,000 in 6 months,
  and Land OLakes expects to save 500,000 in
  2002.
• (Keenan, F. and S.E. Ante, The New Teamwork,
  BusinessWeek e.biz, Feb. 18, 2002, p. EB12-EB16)

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Collaboration TechnologiesCentral Intelligence
Agency (CIA)

• CIA Live!
• Developed by the CIAs Office of Advanced
  Information Technology
• Lets CIA experts
• send instant messages (IM)
• collaborate on reports
• works on top of the CIAs ultra-secure computer
  networks

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CollaborationDifficult Negotiation Sessions and
Decision Making
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Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS)

• A group decision support system is an
  interactive computer-based system that
  facilitates the solution of semistructured and
  unstructured problems by a group of decision
  makers.

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Applications of Discovery, Communication
CollaborationDistance Learning
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Distance Learning (DL)

• Distance learning involves delivering educational
  courses via a mixture of the WWW,
  videoconferencing, collaborative computing tools,
  CD/DVD learning tools, and traditional classroom
  experiences.

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Distance Learning (DL)

• Over 2000 educational institutions offer distance
  learning classes
• Over 300 distance learning degree programs

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Distance Learning (DL)

• Distance Learning Courseware
• Courseware packages pre-assembled instructional
  material that instructors can make available via
  their website or vendor (e.g. WebCT, eCollege)
  website
• Courseware applications (e.g., WebCT)
• Instructor courseware for controlling delivery of
  synchronize multimedia during online courses
• Online Corporate Training
• Web-based Training
• Live or pre-recorded classes
• Huge area of corporate expenditures