From: bob@bobsled.glv.com (Bob Lunney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: 4.0 Wish: Bundled Groupware Tool
Date: 30 Sep 92 21:57:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: glv.1992Sep30.215711.7567
Distribution: usa
Organization: Encompass



In article <1992Sep30.180319.20967@CS.ORST.EDU> chase@stumpy.cs.orst.edu (A.  
Chase Turner) writes:

The following is an excerpt from e-mail sent to NeXT in March 1990.  Since the  
time of this e-mail, HP has introduced Shared-X and SunSoft recently announced  
a similar tool, ShowMe.  In the text below, I refer to Fallaron's Timbiktu, a  
Mac-based application that is widely used for remote technical support in large  
corporations.

My 4.0 Wish: Interactive groupware support tool bundled with NeXT OS
NeXT Mail is an effective inter-personal communication tool that allows  
individuals to serialize requests/responses in their own, individual time;  
groupware tools are designed to manage coordinated interaction in highly  
concurrent working sessions where effective problem solving is based upon  
real-time group interaction.

A Timbiktu-like tool would be vital in re-enforcing and extending technical  
knowledge acquired in earlier training sessions by allowing experts (at a  
remote location) to provide real-time technical support in the context of the  
problem at hand.

Direct-manipulation applications such as Timbiktu Remote can also prove to be a  
vital group-connectivity tool for widely distributed development efforts. For  
example, I have been designing an IB interface for a Customer-Order entry  
system where the Client is located in another state several hundred miles away.   
Until the time when NeXT mail connects the two offices, I use fax transmissions  
to display my work to the Customer-Order support group.  Yet NeXT mail is not  
the solution: the group design effort will continue to be compromised by  
significant interruptions while each individual "updates" their common view.

The issue is not that I should conduct my support efforts in the physical  
presence of the Customer-Order support group: there are too many group  
activities afoot that cannot be effectively coordinated in terms of common  
meeting sites.  Groupware tools such as Timbiktu Remote can effectively allow a  
group to create a real-time work product.  Hence, a meeting at a common site  
can focus upon issues other than the work product, thereby maximizing the human  
dynamics that cannot be supported by a computer tool.
 
I would like to request that NeXT take the initiative to develop a bundled  
application for a Timbiktu Remote-like groupware support tool.  There is  
overwhelming NeXT-internal  evidence to suggest that such a tool could not be  
effectively developed outside NeXT. Furthermore, a non-NeXT solution would  
fragment the acceptance of the tool [1], leading to a segmented vision of  
inter-personal connectivity tools.
_______________________
Notes:

[1] I talked with the Improv technical support manager, Bob McDonald, who  
indicated that their experience with Timbiktu-like tools were diluted by the  
range of different support tools in the PC market.  Clearly a NeXT bundled  
groupware tool would be far more attractive to developers and users than a  
pricey, third-party application.

===============================================================================

Mr. Turner makes a very good point:  The NeXT is very well suited for  
group-based prototyping interaction, even more so now with distributed objects  
caapbility.  However, I would *not* want to see NeXT competing with third party  
developers for lucrative applications such a groupware productivity tools.   
(Think about it - most of the killer apps, regardless of platform, are tools  
that enable people to do a better, more efficient job.)  For NeXT to develop  
this application as a bundled goodie would be a grave mistake on NeXT's part  
since it would drive desparately needed third party developers farther from the  
platform.  If there is a market for such an application (and there definitely  
is), let the third party developers have at it.  Who knows, Mr. Turner, you may  
code the NeXT killer app :-).
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy