Page 173 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Information Technology and Application

Notes 14.6.7 Collaboration Suites and Groupware

Collaboration packages and groupware offer a set of integrated tools for various kinds of
interactions; many of them include functions for basic activities like chatting and whiteboarding.
Traditional groupware programs like Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange, which tend to be more
tightly integrated with in-house networking software, have served as primarily e-mail managers
and launch pads for more specialized interactions, such as browsing and posting static documents
on a corporate messaging database or viewing and updating a group calendar. Collaboration
suites include Netscape/America Online, Inc.’s Communicator and a plethora of smaller and more
specialized applications. More recent refinements to these programs have added more real-time
interactive features, including application sharing (e.g., several users can view and edit a single word
processing document or browse a Web site simultaneously), whiteboards, chat, instant messaging
(sending a short message that appears on the recipient’s screen rather than waiting for him or her to
check e-mail), direct file transfers, and formal conferencing software. Increasingly, groupware includes
utilities for determining which corporate users are logged into the system and available for
conferencing. The various software packages differ in how closely they integrate these functions
and in whether a particular function is more central or more peripheral to the suite.

14.6.8 Privacy, Access, and Security

The digital transmission of information is fast and reliable but often vulnerable to hijack or destruction.
Intellectual properties, eavesdropping, and fraudulent use are all examples of security issues raised
within a computer conference. Other examples include trading of illegally copied software and
pornography on conferencing systems.
Issues with privacy include violation of messaging privacy, monitoring, matching or redesigning
personal data for other than intended uses, caller identification, and other personal indignities
like computer fraud. Accuracy of digital information arises as an issue when credit and financial
decisions rely on automated credit ratings. Access to information and intellectual property laws and
copyright conflict with rights of individual access. Recent encryption schemes, or coded information,
seem to infringe on fair-use doctrine and remain unresolved. Computersecurity issues involve
protecting both hardware and software.

14.6.9 Future Trends
Despite all the new developments in groupware and PC-based collaboration programs, some
observers speculate that increasingly computer conferencing and related tasks, including e-mail,
will be outsourced to mass providers and accessed via standard Web browsers and plug-in utilities.
This view differs significantly from the current development trajectory, which has been to create
separate applications for each major function, e.g., one program to manage e-mail and discussion
boards, another to handle whiteboarding, and so on. Installing and supporting the multitude of
conferencing software alternatives is an expensive endeavor for large businesses, in terms of both
staffing and software/hardware costs, making third-party hosting and turn-key availability an
enticing proposition.
Whether or not computer conferencing software is hosted locally or on the Internet, the trend has been
decidedly toward removing barriers between the various kinds of conferencing and collaboration
tasks. End users want a single interface from which they can initiate any number of collaborative tasks
without needing to start several separate programs or search for utilities buried in software menus.

Did u know? Computer conferencing is emerging not only as a boon to productivity and
cost containment over traditional alternatives, but for some companies it is a
method of adding value to the enterprise’s intellectual capital.

It can do so by keeping employees better informed and by documenting operational and managerial
history and knowledge that can be accessed indefinitely into the future.
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