TeleTools - Groupware and CSCW

• Brinck, Tom
  Introduction to Groupware
  An introduction to groupware and computer-supported cooperative work, typical groupware applications, design issues, and groupware links.

• Cugola, Gianpaolo / Picco, Gian Pietro [2002]
  Peer-to-Peer for Collaborative Applications [pdf]
  The advantages of a peer-to-peer architecture reach well beyond the realm of internet file sharing. Peer-to-peer systems have become key in supporting enterprise processes and especially collaborative work involving mobile and geographically distributed users.

• Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
  A bibliographic database maintained by the Applied Informatics and Distributed Systems Group at Technische Universität München, Germany.

• Field, Anne
  Group Think
  Issue: Inc. Technology #3, 1996, p. 038.
  Field looks at how groupware allows small-company employees to work simultaneously, saving both time and money.

• Groupware - Editor: Tom Brink and others
  A very comprehensive site that includes introductions and overviews, indexes, conferences & workshops, papers & abstracts, books & journals, types of groupware, products & companies, empirical studies, research centers, special interest groups, newsgroups & mailing lists.

• Groupware Links - Usability first

• GroupWise - Novell
  A commercial collaboration tool from Novell. Groupwise is a fully integrated, easy-to-use massaging systems that offers a wide range of powerful communication and collaboration capabilities. It includes e-mail, personal calendaring, group scheduling, imaging, automated workflow, task and document management, rules-based message management, and electronic discussion. GroupWise is developed and optimized to run in mixed server environments.

• Grudin, Jonathan
  (Information and Computer Science Department, University of California, Irvine, USA).
  • [1994] CSCW: History and Focus.
    In: IEEE Computer 27(5):19-26.
    This article describes the participation in CSCW research and groupware development. It ties the emergence of CSCW in the 1980s to the growing interest of product developers in supporting networked groups and the discovery of common interests with those working management information systems, as well as with researchers in the social sciences and other disciplines. Differences in emphasis in Europe and Japan are discussed.

  • [1994] Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers.
    In: Communications of the ACM, 37(1): 92-105.
    Computer support has focused on organizations and individuals. Groups are different. Repeated, expensive groupware failures result from not meeting the challenges in design and evaluation that arise from these differences.

  • and Palen, L. [1995] Why Groupware Succeeds: Discretion or Mandate?
    In: Proceedings ECSCW'95, 263-78. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
    Single-user applications are designed with a 'discretionary use' model. For larger systems however management support is considered crucial to adoption. Which applies to groupware? Grundin and Palen studied on-line meeting schedulars in two large organizations. Versatile functionality and ease of use associated with discrtionary products appeared to be factors leading to adoption.

• Hofte, G. Henri ter
  (Telematica Instituut, Enschede, the Netherlands)
  Working Apart Together - Foundations for Component Groupware
  A presentation of a new generation of groupware systems that allows users to pick up and mix the right groupware tools for a cooperative job. It describes how to structure designs of groupsware systems as well-integrated compositions of grouplets. You can get a full on-line version in PDF-format.

• IntraNet

• Software Tools Online: Groupware - Workflow Management.

• Usenet - comp.groupware

• Web Conferencing
  • Choosing Web Conferencing Software - by: David R. Woolley.
    He discusses the principles of webconferencing, categorizes the products you can use, spells out some key considerations and some universal problems. The conclusion is that there is no single best product that is the ideal choice for every situation, because "no conferencing system available excels in everything".

  • Conferencing on the Web - Editor: David R. Woolley.
    A Comprehensive guide to software that powers discussions on the Web. Information and links on Web software for asynchronous group discussions using stored text messages.

  • The Future of Web Conferencing - By David R. Woolley. June, 1998.
    Analyses some trends in Web conferencing (such as the merging of threaded and linear discussion structures, and merging of real-time chat with asynchronous conferencing) and areas where conferencing software needs to improve (such as finding active discussions).

  • Hosting Online Conferences
    A collection of articles on the social aspects of hosting (moderating or facilitating) online conferences.

• Groupware resources from Dmoz

• Groupware resources from Yahoo!

Groupware Toolkits

• BrightSuite
  A web-based groupware application presented by DCASoft. Collaboration tools include email, document management, instant messaging, shared calendars, resource management, chat, lessons learned (a database of knowledge gained through experiene), task management, discussion boards, to-do-lists, surveys, sand image galleries.

• Clock
  A language intented to support the development of interactive software, including distributed multi-media groupware. Written by T.C. Nicolas Graham, Department of Computing and Information Science, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.

• Conversation Builder (CB)
  A support tool that is intended to provide flexible, active support for (collaborative) work activities.f

• Grouplab
  A labratory for Human Computer Interation and CSCW, led by Saul Greenberg at the University of Calgary. Design and evaluation of technology that supports geographically distributed small teams.

• Habanero - NCSA, Java groupware support
  A set of tools for developers to create collaborative Java applications. Habanero provides the necessary methods that make it possible to create or transition existing applications and applets into collaborative applications.

• Java Collaborator Toolset
  A package that helps to many any Java application collaborative. It does this by providing a replacement for the Java AWT. This replacement intercepts all events, and sends them to all copies of the application via an event distributor.

• PHProjekt
  A modular application for the coordination of group activities and to share information and documents via intranets and the internet. The components include: group calendar, project management, time card system, file management, contact manager, mail client, forum, chat, request tracker, notes, bookmarks, voting system, administration, to-do list, reminder, and search system. The PHProjekt open source software and is available in many languages

• Sparrow Web
  Allows for community shared web pages, which can be modified or added to by any interested contributor. Community-shared pages increase the collaborative capability of the web.

Video Conferencing

• Arena Videoconferentie
  A Dutch site on videoconferencing from KPN Telecom.

• BuenaVista
  A multiplatform videoconferencing system designed both for the Internet and for intranets. It is a multiuser system (not just another peer-to-peer Internet phone) that allows conference participants to use different audio/video formats and to witch between them as dictated by network conditions without affecting session setup for LAN applications. It offers session archiving and replay capabilities, and it is free. BuenaVista is a part of a generalized Web-based collaborative system developed in NPAC-- TANGO .

• CED: Videoconferencing
  Articles on teleconferencing in "Communications, Engineering & Design" (CED), a magazine of broadband technology.

• Conferencing Software for the Web
  A comprehensive guide to software that powers discussions on the Web. A structured listing of resoures on forum software and real-time conferencing (data conferencing, instant messaging, chat, whiteboards, presentations, web tours, video, audio etc.). Editor: David R. Woolley.

• CU-See Me
  A free, low bandwidth Internet videoconferencing from Cornell University. With CU-SeeMe, you can videoconference with another site located anywhere in the world. By using "reflector" software, multiple parties at different locations can participate in a CU-SeeMe conference, each from his or her own desktop computer (Macintosh or Windows).

• INRIA videoconferencing System (IVS)
  A videoconferencing tool for the internet available in the public domain.

• iVisit
  A videoconferencing program created by Tim Dorcey (who also invented CU-SeeMe). To exchange real-time video, audio and text messages it requires only an internet connection. The program is free of charge and is supported by Macintosh and Windows. No reflectors or servers are used to transport the data.

• UK Videoconferencing Demonstration Service

• Video Conference Resource Center
  A page designed to help make sense of the technology and not aligned with any one manufacturer. Editor: Adriana Fourcher.

• Videoconferencing Testbed Project — Purdue University
  CadLab presents an evaluation of current videoconferencing packages and develops a multi-platform system. The database of videoconferencing products they use is searchable.

• Windows Netmeeting
  The Windows real-time collaboration and conferening client. Includes video and audio conferencing, whiteboard, chat, internet directory, file transfer, program sharing, remote destop sharing, privacy protection, and advanced calling.s

Chat

Chat software provides the ability to "talk" using your keyboard in real-time with other people on a network of computers like the internet or a company intranet. This textual real-time way of communicating allows people to join a conversation in a public meeting room during most any hour of the day. Scheduled chats allow people to meet at predefined times to discuss topics of special interest. Chat rooms are a cost effective means to talk to others in different countries where a telephone call would be cost prohibitive. Chat rooms offer an alternative form of communication to email, telephone, regular mail, and in person communication. Chat software is categorized as either IRC or Web-based.

• ChitChat
  A Macintosh based multimedia communication software packages for networks that supports text communication, speaking into a microphone and displaying images. Text is displayed in a continuous scrolling window, graphics may be displayed in a separate image window. This makes ChitChat perfect for group and remote presentations. The software can be accessed locally via Ethernet or LocalTalk networks or remotely via Apple Remote Access. The demo version is limited to 4 continuous hours, with 5 maximum participants and 5 simultaneous conferences.

• ParaChat
  A Java based chat system that provides private rooms and the ability to resize and float the chat room window on the client desktop. The administrator can define security to ban users by name or IP address, define room topics, get logs of what was said in the chat sessions, and define room passwords. You can get a free version (advertisement supported) and a professional version (no ads and own room admin. control).s

• TeamWave Workplace
  For teams who are sometimes physically separated yet still need to work closely together this tool provides an Internet forum where teams collaborate, communicate and share information. Unlike real-time only tools like video conferencing, TeamWave works both when teams can meet at the same time as well as when they can't. TeamWave runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms, as well as SunOS, Solaris, SGI, AIX and Linux. Users can customize the shared rooms with shared tools like whiteboards, chat, calendars, bulletin boards, documents, brainstorming and voting, so you can fit the rooms to your team's tasks. Team members can work together in rooms any-time, whether meeting in real-time or leaving information for others to pick up or add to later. It is a communication solution for telecommuters, distance education, branch offices, business teams, road warriors — any teams whose members sometimes work apart.

• VolanoChat — Volano LLC
  A software package with Java based client and server components. It allows Web developers and businesses to create easily customized chat rooms for their public Web sites and corporate intranets. The "VolanoChatPro" includes advanced features for ISP's and corporations interested in providing personal chat room hosting services and password protected membership services.

• Yahoo! — Chat

Email Applications

• Eudora
  One of the most popular mail clients for internet, in Windows and Mac versions, including Eudora Lite, which is freeware, and a time-limited demo versions of Eudora Pro. Information for Euroda users can be found on the [Unofficial] Eudora Site of Pete Beim. It includes manuals, where to get the software, FAQs, links to other Eudora sites, Newsgroups and the Mailing List. For Window lovers only. On Peter's Eudora Page the Mac lovers are served with plug-in files and information that can help you get the most out of Eudora on a Macintosh.

• MailStart
  Your Email Anytime, Anywhere. - A site that allows you to access your own email account from a web-page. That means that where-ever you are in the world you can access your own ISP from any internet connected workstation (be that cyber café; friends house or conference computer) all through a public url and without having to alter any settings. Type in your email address and password and the bot at the site does the rest for you. MailStart allows you to use a browser to read your email, reply, forward, delete and send new messages, making your email accessible from anywhere. But certain e-mail functions will not work. You cannot receive attachments with MailStart because they do not store any of your e-mail locally.

• Pegasus Mail
  A site that allows you to access your own email account from a web-page. That means that where-ever you are in the world you can access your own ISP from any internet connected workstation (be that cyber café; friends house or conference computer) all through a public url and without having to alter any settings. Type in your email address and password and the bot at the site does the rest for you. MailStart allows you to use a browser to read your email, reply, forward, delete and send new messages, making your email accessible from anywhere. But certain e-mail functions will not work. You cannot receive attachments with MailStart because they do not store any of your e-mail locally.

• ThatWeb
  An intelligent web based email retrieval service that does not require users to pre-configure any server setting.

• Resources on electronic mail: DMOZ | Yahoo!

ISDN/ADSL

• ASDL - PTT Telecom, Netherlands

• adsl.pagina
  A Dutch link page on ADSL.

• Dan Kegel's ISDN Page
  Almost everything you need to know about ISDN. sWhat is it, how it works, soft- and hardware aspects, and even some ISDN humor.

• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable - About

• isdn.page
  A Dutch link page on ISDN.

• ISDN Tutorial
  Introduction to concepts, history, advances, protocols, references, and more. Editor: Ralph Becker.

• What is ISDN? - Southwestern Bell

File Compressing and Expansion

• PKZIP
  Compression tool for Windows. Includes enhanced features such as spanning files to multiple diskettes, creating self-extracting files, and creating spanned self-extracting files.

• WinZip
  The archive utility for Windows.

• XferPro (Sabasoft, Inc.)
  Encodes en decodes files for Internet transmission. You can download a fully functional shareware copy of this program for Windows, DOS, Apple Macintosh, or Unix.

Mobile Computing

Telecommuting is taking a new turn. As an increasing number of people take the on-ramp to the superinformation highway to cruise the internet, a larger percentage are doing so from the road. "Road Warriors" are using high-tech gadgets that enable them to break free of the traditional office environment and do business on the run. Road warriors use cellular phones, but the also send and receive faxes, e-mail and electronic data files from the confines of their cars. They can be paged and beeped wherever they roam.

• Mobile Computing & Communications Magazine
  A magazine focused exclusively on portable technology being used in corporate applications (notebooks, mobile phones etc.). Published monthly by CurtCo Freedom Group, based in Malibu, CA, USA.

• Take your high-tech gadgets on the road
  An explanation of the weapons used by "road warriors" in working out of the office.

• Resources on mobile computing: DMOZ | Yahoo!

Security

The importance of data security cannot be underestimated in today's high-tech business world. For telecommuters, where information regularly travels outside the realm of the traditional office, the importance grows exponentially. This is a selection of new products and systems designed to secure the lifeforce of today's business information age.
• Cryptography: The Study of Encryption
  How to give yourself privacy in electronic communications? Francis Litterio opens your window for the scientific basis for privacy.

• Cryptography FAQ

• Cryptography FAQ - RSA Laboratories
  Frequently asked questions about the concept, techniques and applications of cryptography. Includes a section on cryptography standards and laws. In the appendix you will find a brief description of some mathematical concepts and a glossary. RSA Laboratories is an academic environment within the commercial organization RSA Security Inc.

• Internet Security
  Details of the (US) Office of the Vice President's Federal Networking Council working group on Internet Security.

• Legal, Privacy and Security Issues in Electronic Commerce - UNB Saint John Ward Chipman Library (Canada).

• NewsGroups
  • sci.crypt

  • sci.crypt.research (moderated)

• PGP - Pretty Good Privacy
  An easy to use and powerful protection system for email encryption and authentication.

• The Risks Digest
  Forum on risks to the public in computers and relates systems.

• Security and Cryptology
  Presented by the Industry Canada, and part of a site on Electronic Commerce in Canada.

• Technical Security Branch
  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Information Technology Security Branch (ITSB) is part of the Technical Operations Directorate and is responsible for the information technology security.

• WWW Security Resources
  A reasonably comprehensive list of security resources covering mailing lists, HTTP protocol, and links to tasks groups of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Presented by the Rutgers University Network Services.

E-Cash

• Network Payment Mechanisms and Digital Cash - by Michael Peirce (Trinity College Dublin).
  Information on existing payment mechanisms designed for the Internet and proposed systems, Discussion & Mailing Lists, papers of David Chaum, Implementation Tools and Storefronts.

• CyberCash
  Uses SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) as a global payment protocol. SET is a collection of encryption and security specifications used as an open standard for ensuring secure payment transactions over the Internet.

• Digital Cash
  Resources from Yahoo!

• Digital Money & Transactions Archive
  Presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

• Electronic Money, or E-Money, and Digital Cash
  A list of links to resources on e-money, maintained by Roy Davies (Science Librarian at the University of Exeter, UK)

• Exploring Digital Cash
  A project of the School of Information Management & Systems, UC Berkely, USA.

• I-Pay
  A Dutch electronic payment system created by Interpay and some Dutch banks. It is based on the Internet Keyed Payment Protocol that uses public key encryption.

• IPS-Group - Internet Payment Systems
  A site that wants to promote Internet payment means in Russa. The Russian/English language site includes articles from Russian magazines about different Internet payment systems, Russian laws and cryptography.

• MilliCent - DIGITALS's Microcommerce System.
  With this system you can choose to purchase web-based content through short subscriptions for websites you visit all of the time or through pay-per-click for content or sites you visit occasionally. MilliCent subscriptions can be purchased for hours, days or weeks, instead of years. Content bought by the click now costs pennies, nickels or dimes instead of dollars.

• Mondex
  New users can take an interactive tour, and find out if it is possible to get to the beach with no cash. Mondex operates on a smart card which stores information on a microchip.

• NetCash
  A framework for electronic currency developed at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California (USA). NetCash provides a real-time electronic payment system that satisfies the diverse requirements of service providers and their users.

• Selected Biography on Electronic Purses
  A huge and detailed collection off- and on-line links, maintained by Leo van Hove (Belgium).

Workflow

Workflow management deals with the specification and execution of business processes. Workflow management systems execute business processes. General workflow specifications include the actions to be performed, statements on control and data flow among these actions, agents allowed to execute actions, and policies that describe the organizational enviroment.

• Computron Software
  A company that produces software for workflow management. AXS-One is a suite of integrated web-based systems designed to automate and manage critical business areas, such as expenses, revenue, procurement, business planning and information management.

• IMMDG - Research in Mobile Workflow Management
  Department of Database Systems, University of Erlangen (Germany).

• LinkWorks - Compaq
  A framework for mission-critical, document-based business processes. LinkWorks integrates personal productivity tools on many desktop types with business specific functions. It is pre-configured with generic functions like role-based access control, compound document management and workflow. It can be tailored to specific customer needs using a powerful workbench. The object-oriented architecture of the framework allows for the inclusion of business-specific "software components" using a programming tool of choice. LinkWorks-based solutions can be implemented stand-alone or on top of industry-standard communication infrastructures like Microsoft Exchange and the Internet.

• Plesums, Charles [2002]
  An Introduction to Workflow [pdf]
  In: Layna Fisher [2002] Workflow Handbook. Chapter 1.

• Product Data Management Information Center (PDM)

• Workflow and Reengineering International Association (WARIA)
  Information on workflow internet places, news, conferences, and benefits.

• Workflow Management and Groupware
  Includes a systematic overview of the leading workflow and groupware products. Presented by the Fraunhofer-Institute for Software Engineering and Systems Engineering (Germany)

• Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC)
  A non-profit international body for the development and promotion of workflow standards. The mission of the WfMC is to promote the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products.

• Workflowsoftware.com [Moved to ??]
  An annotated list of workflow related resources with emphasis on the research in the area of the workflows in general, transactional workflows, workflow modeling as well as such specific hot topics as workflows using WWW and agent technologies. It includes some links to workflow related standardization and to workflow related vendors and their products. Editor: Nick Galea

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI is defined as the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard format.

• Edi Asia
  One-Stop-Solutions for Electronic Commerce, from Hong Kong.

• Introduction to EDI
  Trinity College Dublin, Computer Science Department, Networks & Telecommunications Research Group.

• Software Tools Online: EDI - Workflow Management.

WWW Utilities

• CyberSpyder Link Test
  A Web site management program to be used to verify that the URLs on a site are not broken. It is designed to be used on sites of all sizes; from the very small personal or business Web site with only a few pages, to the very large corporate site with thousands of links. The program includes features found in more expensive programs, but at a price affordable by the owner of a small personal site. This shareware program may be used free for up to 60 days for evaluation purposes.

• LinkCheck v.4
  LinkCheck allows you to check the links on any page. It can be used to create inline images on a web page, or scan a web page for links and return a "link-checked" page. The neatest thing about it is the "Check-n-Browse" mode which allows you to browse the web, while checking links the entire time! The creator of this program is John Ray (Ohio State University, USA).

  Enter URL to test All links (including local links) ? Yes No Check-n-Browse ? Yes No

• NetMechanic
  The NetMechanic can check your Web site for HTML syntax errors, or it can check all the links on your site to make sure they are still valid. The site can either be checked in the foreground, meaning that as you wait, you see a graphical icon that indicates the progress. For whole sites (instead of single pages), the process can take place in the background - the NetMechanic will email you when the testing is over, and you simply go to the URL specified on the email, and all your links are listed with an explanation of errors, bad links, etc. on a page-by-page basis.

• Web Site Garage
  A great place to tune op your Web site free. Of course you are a genius, but yet - in spite of all your arduous work - there might be one or two errors in your brilliant site. In this garage you can check your HTML-design, check for dead links (but only the first 25 of them), check spelling errors, check page loading times. They can even tell you how popular your site is, checking the sites linking to your page.
  Park your Web site here: