PPT Learning Objectives

Chapter 4 Chapter 4

Network Computing:

Discovery, Communication,

& Collaboration

Learning Objectives

 Understand the concepts of the Internet and the Web, their importance, and their capabilities.

 Understand the role of intranets, extranets, and corporate portals in organizations.

 Identify the various ways in which communication is executed over the Internet.

 Demonstrate how people collaborate over the Internet, intranets, and extranets using various supporting tools, including voice technology and teleconferencing.

Learning Objectives (cont.)

 Describe groupware capabilities.

 Describe and analyze the role of software agents for the Internet/ intranets.

 Analyze telecommuting (teleworking) as a techno-social phenomena.

 Consider ethical issues related to the use of the Internet.

Case: National Semiconductor Corporation (NSC)

Problem:

 The semiconductor industry is one of the most competitive global industries.

 To keep up with customer specifications, NSC needed to upgrade its communications channels.

Solution:

 NSC introduced a corporate portal where it posts detailed descriptions of its 10,000 products. The NSC Web site offers design assistants and simulators to guide customers in designing their products.

Results:

 NSC’s sales and profitability increased significantly in 1996 and 1997 due to the Internet solution.

Lessons from the Case

 The NSC opening case demonstrates the increasing role that the Internet, intranets, and extranets play in organizations, and their potential benefits.

 Using various Web-based applications, NSC enabled its

employees to work very closely with its customers, to speed up design and cut costs.

 NSC made full use of Web technologies both for internal and external applications.

 Customers use the Web to discover information, to communicate with NSC’s employees, and to collaborate with the technical staff.

Wireless Networking

 Wireless networking is gaining popularity for flexible

communication in wide area networks in cities and local area networks in buildings.

 Internet2 is a project involving over 180 U.S. universities working in partnership with industry and government.

 This project aims to provide the following advanced next generation applications.

• Remote diagnosis

• Digital libraries

• Distance education

• Online simulation

• Virtual laboratories

Internet Application Categories

The Internet supports applications in the following major categories:

 Discovery. Discovery involves browsing and information retrieval.

 Communication. The Internet provides fast and inexpensive

communication channels that range from messages posted on bulletin boards to complex information exchanges among many organizations.

 Collaboration. Due to improved communication, electronic collaboration between individuals and/or groups is on the rise.

Discovery

 Discovery is done by browsing & searching data on the Web.

 There are 2 main types of search facilities available on the Web:

 Search engines (e.g., Altavista, Google) maintain an index of

hundreds of millions of Web pages and use that index to find pages that match a set of user-specified keywords.

 Directories (e.g., Yahoo!, About.com) provide a hierarchically organized collection of links to Web pages.

Search Engines Index Comparison

GG =Google, FAST=FAST, WT=WebTop.com, INK=Inktomi, AV=AltaVista,

NL=Northern Light, EX=Excite, Go=Go (Infoseek). Grey portion = the number of indirect pages, if any, used during the search.

Web-browsing Assisting Agents

 Intelligent Agents are computer programs that carry out a set of routine computer tasks on behalf of the user.

 Some agents can facilitate browsing by offering the user a tour guide of the Internet. They work while the user browses.

 FAQ agents guide people to answers of frequently asked questions.

 The agent (such as FAQFinder) addresses large numbers of FAQ files and provides an interface by which people can post their questions.

 AskJeeves (askjeeves.com) is an example of a FAQ assistant.

Web-browsing Assisting Agents

(cont.)

 Web robots, spiders, and wanderers travel the Web and perform tasks such as information retrieval and discovery, validating links or HTML, and generating statistics.

 Indexing agents can carry out a massive autonomous search of the Web on behalf of a user or, more commonly, of a search engine.

 Metasearch engines integrate the findings of the various search engines to answer queries posted by the users.

 Internet softbots attempt to determine more specifically what the user wants and can better focus a search.

Case: Catching Cases of Plagiarism

Problem:

 The Internet provides abundant information to students who may be tempted to download material and submit it as their own work.

Solution:

 Some companies (e.g., Plagiarism.org) are offering Internet-based anti-plagiarism technology to identify such cases of plagiarism.

 Manuscript are checked against a database of other manuscripts collected from different universities and from all over the Internet.

Results:

 Cases of gross plagiarism are more likely to be flagged.

Internet-based Data Mining

 The term data mining refers to sophisticated analysis techniques for sifting through large amounts of information.

 Web mining is the application of data mining techniques to

discover actionable and meaningful patterns, profiles, and trends from Web resources.

 Web mining is used in the following areas:

 Information filtering (e-mails, magazines, and newspapers).

 Surveillance (Internet competitors, patents)

 Mining Web-access logs

 Assisted browsing

 Services fighting crime on the Internet

Intranet

 Intranets (Internal Webs) are networks designed to serve the internal informational needs of a company, using Web concepts and tools.

 Intranets have the power to change organizational

structures and reengineer corporations.

Some functions of Intranets:

 Easy and inexpensive Internet browsing.

 Postings of employee resumes, business plans, and corporate regulations and procedures.

 Communication and

collaboration capabilities, e.g.

newsletters.

Extranets

 An Extranet is an infrastructure that allows secure

communications among business partners over the Internet.

 It offers limited accessibility to the intranets of the participating companies as well as the necessary interorganizational communications.

 The use of extranets is increasing rapidly due to the large savings in communication costs that can materialize.

 Extranets enable innovative applications of business-to-business (B2B) e-Commerce.

 They are closely related to improved communications along the supply chain

Corporate Portals

 With the growing use of intranets and the Internet, many

organizations encounter difficulties in dealing with information overload.

 One solution to the problem of scattered and duplicative data are corporate portals.

 Corporate portals provide single-point access to an organization’s information and applications available on the Internet, intranets, and extranets.

 Affinity portals are being built to support communities such as labor minors, hobby groups, and political parties .

Corporate Portals (cont.)

The top corporate portal applications currently under development include;

 Knowledge bases and learning tools

 Business process support

 Customer-facing sales, marketing, and service

 Collaboration and project support

 Access to data from disparate corporate systems

 Internal company information

 Policies and procedures

 Best practices and lessons learned

 Human resources and benefits

IT Technologies for Communications

Several factors determine the IT technologies used to provide communication support to an organization.

 Participants. The number of people sending and receiving information can range from two to many thousands.

 Nature of sources and destinations. Sources and destinations of information can include people, databases, sensors, and so on.

 Location. The sender(s) and receiver(s) can be in the same room, in different rooms at the same location, or at different locations.

 Time. Messages can be sent at a certain time and received almost simultaneously.

 Media. Communication can involve one or several media.

Time / Place Framework

Same-time/same-place.

In this setting, participants meet face-to-face in one place and at the same time. An example is

communication in a meeting room.

Same-time/different-place.

This setting refers to a meeting whose participants are in different places but communicate at the same time. E.g., a telephone conference call.

Different-time/same-place.

This setting can materialize when people work in shifts. The first shift leaves electronic or voice

messages for the second shift.

Different-time/different- place.

In this setting, participants are in different places, and they send and/or receive messages at different times.

Communications

 Electronic mail (e-mail) is the most used service of the

Internet.

 Instant messaging services allow users to identify and

exchange instant messages in real time.

 ICQ is the most popular instant messaging tool on the Internet.

 Messaging in wireless

environments offer access to the Internet from cellular

phones.

 Software agents are programs that execute mundane tasks for the benefit of their users.

 E-mail agents assist users with the often time-consuming task of managing their e-mail.

Communications (cont.)

 Web-based call centers provide effective product support and deliver live customer-service capabilities for any online company.

 Peer-to-peer networks are systems that include a large number of small computer systems used for information exchange and sharing resources.

 E.g., Napster (napster.com)

 Chat rooms are virtual meeting grounds where groups of regulars come to gab.

 Chat rooms can be used to build a community, or to promote a commercial, political, or environmental cause.

E-Voice Communication

 Voice communication can now be done on the computer using a microphone and a sound card.

 e.g., Dialpad.com

 Applications of Voice Technology:

 Interactive voice recognition.

 Voice annotation.

 Automated attendant.

 Voice mail.

 Audiotext.

Collaboration

 Collaboration refers to mutual efforts by two or more

individuals who perform

activities in order to accomplish certain tasks.

 A work group refers to two or more individuals who act

together to perform some task.

 E.g., a committee, a review panel, a task force, an

executive board, a team, or a department.

Dysfunctions of Group Process

 Social pressures to conform may eliminate superior ideas.

 Group process can be time-consuming, slow, and costly.

 Work done in a group may lack appropriate coordination.

 Some members may dominate the agenda.

 Some group members may rely on others to do most of their work.

 The group may compromise on solutions of poor quality.

 The group may be unable to complete a task.

 Unproductive time is spent socializing, getting ready, waiting for people, or repeating what has already been said.

 Members may be afraid to speak up.

Nominal Group Technique

The nominal group technique (NGT) is a group communication method that includes a sequence of activities:

(1) Silent generation of ideas in writing

(2) Round-robin listing of ideas on a flip chart (3) Serial discussion of ideas

(4) Silent listing and ranking of priorities (5) Discussion of priorities

(6) Silent reranking and rating of priorities

Groupware

 Groupware refers to software products that support groups of people who share a common task or goal and collaborate on its accomplishment.

 Groupware products comes in two forms:

 A standalone product supporting one task (e-mail).

 An integrated kit that includes several tools (e-mail, workflow, etc.).

 Groupware products are either Web-based, which is the trend today, or they are not related to the Internet and work with other networks.

Groupware Technologies

 Workflow systems are

business process automation tools that place system controls in the hands of user

departments.

 Screen Sharing uses special software to allow colleagues to work on the same document, which is shown on the screen of each participant.

 Whiteboarding allows each user to view and draw on a single document “pasted” onto the electronic whiteboard.

 Collaborative Web browsing assists a group of people in browsing by suggesting new material likely to be of common interest.

Real Time Collaboration

 Real-time collaboration (RTC) tools help companies bridge time and space to make decisions and collaborate on projects.

 Lotus Notes is one of the best-known of the RTC tools and offers the following functions;

 online collaboration capabilities, workgroup e-mail, distributed databases, bulletin whiteboards, text editing, document

management, etc.

 Microsoft NetMeeting, another RTC package, offers the following;

 whiteboarding, application sharing, remote desktop sharing, file transfer, text chat, data conferencing, and desktop audio and videoconferencing.

Teleconferencing

 Teleconferencing is the use of electronic communication that allows two or more people at different locations to have a simultaneous

conference.

 Video teleconferencing enables participants in one location to see participants at other locations.

 Data conferencing enables data to be sent along with voice & video.

 Video mail is similar to voice mail; however, the voice and image

components of video mail can be created from portions of conferences and stored on a file server.

Distance Learning (DL)

 Distance learning (DL) occurs when learning is performed with tools or technologies designed to overcome the restrictions of either same time or same place learning.

 Distant learning courseware packages are software programs that enable distance learning.

 E.g., Lotus Notes, Microsoft NetMeeting, Novell GroupWise, and GroupSystems, Lotus Learning Space, WebCT.

 Online Corporate Training allow IT organizations to keep their staff members up to date with the latest innovations in IT.

Video conferencing Strategies

 Strategies to help improve communication while using video conferencing technology include (Reed, 1999);

 Set expectations and establish protocols.

 Involve students from the beginning.

 Use visual aids.

 Provide supporting materials.

 Punctuate lectures with small group activities.

 Reduce distractions.

 Encourage dialogue.

Telecommuting

 Telecommuting, or teleworking is when employees work at home, at the customer’s premises, or while traveling, using a computer linked to their place of employment.

 Some experts predict that in 10 to 15 years, 50 percent of all work will be done at home, on the road, or at the customer’s site.

 The opportunity to work at home helps women or single parents assume more responsible managerial positions in organizations.

 Telecommuting has been related to an increase in work productivity.

Case: Handling Crucial Files on the Road

Problem:

 Mellissa McNatt, a telecommuter, was not able to attach large files to e-mail messages due to objections from her customers.

Solution:

 McNatt found a solution to her problem at NetDocuments.com, which offers document storage at its site.

 With this facility McNatt is able to access her documents and also to share them with her customers.

Results:

 Using this online document storage, McNatt expects to cut down her cycle of contact with prospective customers from 7-8 days to 2 days.

Reasons for Telecommuting Failures

 Insufficient support infrastructure

 Insufficient security policies

 Union difficulties

 Quantifiable gains aren’t achieved

 Teleworker productivity declines

 Overall productivity declines

Ethics on the Net

 Privacy and ethics in e-mail

 Right of free speech

 Copyright

 The privacy of patients’ information

 Internet manners

 Monitoring employees’ use of the Internet

Managerial Issues

 Security of communication.

Communication via networks raises the issue of the integrity, confidentiality, and security of the data being transferred.

 Data crossing national

borders. It is easier to control data crossing national borders electronically.

Managerial Issues (cont.)

 Congestion. Some people believe the increased use of the net will clog it and that companies should develop a plan to limit its use.

 Control of employee time and activities. Employees may be tempted to conduct private surfing during work hours.

 Questionnaires and referenda. An increasing number of researchers and pollsters are using the Internet for marketing or political surveys.

 Organizational impacts. Technology-supported communication may have major organizational impacts.

Managerial Issues (cont.)

 Telecommuting. Not all jobs are suitable for telecommuting.

 Cost-benefit justification. Information technologies do not come free, and many of the benefits are intangible.

 Legal issues. There are many unresolved legal issues.

 Managing the intranet. This is becoming a major problem due to the ease of placing material on an intranet and the huge volume of

information.