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- From: groupware@arch.ping.dk (Groupware FAQ)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: comp.groupware FAQ: Products5: Frequently Asked Questions
- Supersedes: <comp-groupware-faq/products5_856091417@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 22 Apr 1997 09:22:28 GMT
- Organization: University of Copenhagen
- Lines: 684
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Expires: 9 Jul 1997 09:21:29 GMT
- Message-ID: <comp-groupware-faq/products5_861700889@rtfm.mit.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
- Summary: Groupware Products, part five
- Keywords: CSCW, orgware, group, interactive, shared, environments
- X-Last-Updated: 1995/09/08
- Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.groupware:9889 comp.answers:25525 news.answers:100410
-
- Archive-name: comp-groupware-faq/products5
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
- Last-modified: 1995.9.8
- Version: 3.3
- Copyright: 1990 - 1995 (C) David S. Stodolsky, PhD
-
- Groupware Products - Part 5
- ===========================
-
-
- Internet conference to Notes database
- -------------------------------------
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- From: joe@netcom.com (Joseph Jesson)
- Subject: Re: Converting internet conference to Notes database
- Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 23:07:49 GMT
-
- Our product(s) does exactly that without the intermediate import
- requirement. A UNIX spooled file injected into a Notes Database is
- available for $320.00 (use your UNIX shell account and rn to collect
- the newsgroups of interest.
-
- A full-blown NNTP-to-Notes production gateway goes for $8,700
- per Notes server and completes a real-time translation of an NNTP
- newsfeed into Notes.
-
- Joe Jesson, 708-356-6817 joe@netcom.com
-
-
- Lite, fast, Conferencing system
- -------------------------------
- From: benpolk@netcom.com (Ben Polk)
- Subject: Re: Looking for lite, fast, Conferencing system...
- Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 23:10:14 GMT
-
- Jerry Cashman (Jerry.Cashman@asx.decus.com.au) wrote:
- : Hi all,
-
- : I'm looking for a small, fast, LAN based (NETbios) Windows, conferencing tool.
-
- : A pretty basic feature set is required, almost NEWS like. (Groups, Articles,
- : Threads & binary file attachments or OLE support.)
-
- : I don't want to go to the (IMHO) expense or hassle of Notes...
-
- "small, fast, LAN based... Windows conferencing tool". Sounds like a
- description of the Share product from Collabra (where I work). Share is
- easy to use and manage, as well as reasonably priced. It's also won
- a litany of software awards which I will refrain from repeating here.
-
- Our Australian distributor is:
-
- ITS (Information Technology Solutions)
- Phone: 011-613-826-6522
- Fax: 011-613-824-1488
-
- Collabra's USA number is 1-800-474-7427
-
- If you are calling Collabra from outside the US, the number is
- 415-940-6400.
-
- For people using Novell Groupwise, call Novell at 800-861-2507
- for information about the version of Collabra Share included in
- Groupwise.
-
- For people using Banyan e-mail systems, call Banyan at 800-222-6926
- for information about Share included with the Banyan messaging
- products. If you are using Vines, but not one of the Banyan mail
- systems, contact Collabra directly.
-
-
- From: sksonney@escape.com (The Alchemist)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Looking for lite, fast, Conferencing system...
- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 07:54:41
-
- In article <3g3jhd$v96@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com> CFNT13A@prodigy.com (John Culbert) writes:
-
- >I've looked into Collabra Share and it looks to be a very strong
- >conferencing program. One of the magazines called it Lotus Notes, Jr.
- >Call 800-474-7427 and they'll send you a demo.
-
- It's more of a document management program, like Notes. The latest Network
- World did call it "Notes Jr," but it mentions that you don't get all the
- functionality of Notes.
-
- If you want realtime confrencing, there are a few more products on the market
- - Including one by Toshiba - that are focused on confrencing. Notes and
- Collabra Share are more directed towards document management and workflow.
-
- - Kevin Sonney
-
-
- From: traxsoft@netcom.com (Trax Softworks)
- Subject: Re: Collabra Share
- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 00:04:55 GMT
-
- We have placed an evaluation copy of TeamTalk, our group
- conferencing package, into an anonymous FTP directory. This
- evaluation version is the same as the full product, except that it
- will stop working after 500 appends.
-
- It is available from ftp.netcom.com, in the directory
- /pub/tr/traxsoft.
-
- The file that is out there is a 1.8meg file, tt11eval.zip. I kept
- it one file so a person can do a single ftp get. After they have
- it on their PC they can unzip it and it becomes 4 files which can
- be put on 2 diskettes if they wish to move it to another machine.
-
- There is also a small readme.wri file with info about TeamTalk if
- you'd like to check that out before committing to a 1.8 Meg
- transfer.
-
- Here is some basic info about TeamTalk:
-
- TeamTalk is a graphical conference system designed to enhance
- communication among groups. It works on a network and can be
- accessed by anyone who can access the files or has an e-mail
- connection.
-
- TeamTalk offers a unique way to share ideas and data throughout
- the organization: TeamTalk members communicate through named
- conversations, known as Topics. Each conversation appears as one
- continuous document instead of a list of messages; this provides a
- continuity not possible in bulletin board and e-mail systems.
- Comments can be typed directly into each individual topic, and,
- through TeamTalk's OLE 2.0 support, objects created in other
- applications can be included in comments. Any TeamTalk member can
- review and add to public topics, and they can join topics so they
- are notified of new additions.
-
- If you would like to begin a new conversation based on an existing
- conversation, it is simple to create a new topic within an
- existing one. TeamTalk is hierarchical; you can add topics within
- topics, down as many levels as necessary. Thus, topics can get
- more and more specific. And since each topic has a separate
- membership, you read only those you are interested in.
-
- For confidential conversations, TeamTalk offers private topics.
- Only topic members know they exist and can review them.
-
- TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
-
- * IBM compatible PC, 80286 or higher CPU
- * 4 Megabytes of memory
- * 5 Megabytes of disk space
- * Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher
- * Any network that supports DOS shared files (i.e., Microsoft
- Windows for Workgroups or Windows NT, Novell NetWare, LAN Manager,
- Artisoft LANtastic)
-
- TEAMTALK PRICES
-
- 5 User Pack $ 395
- 25 User Pack $ 1,775
- 50 User Pack $ 3,450
- 100 User Pack $ 6,700
- 250 User Pack $16,250
- 500 User Pack $31,500
- 1000 User Pack $61,000
-
- TO ORDER OR FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL TRAX AT 800 367-8729 (800
- FOR-TRAX), or 310-649-5800, or send e-mail to info@traxsoft.com,
- or fax 310-649-6200.
-
-
- From: dmittleman@bpavms.bpa.arizona.edu (Daniel Mittleman)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Looking for lite, fast, Conferencing system...
- Date: 27 Jan 1995 09:09 MST
-
- On the subject of inexpensive conferencing systems I just want to note:
- many people have dismissed GroupSystems as an inexpensive conferencing
- system because of its price, while at the same time acknowledging it to
- be the Rolls Royce of conferencing systems (or something like that.)
-
- Two or three years ago the list price for GroupSystems was about
- $44,000 which placed it out of many people's pocketbooks. Now,
- GroupSystems for Windows has a list price of $8,950 for a ten user
- license and a two user proof-of-concept license is $995 (with that $995
- counting towards the purchase of a future large scale license if one
- chooses to adopt and upgrade.) So it still isn't chicken feed, but it
- brings the software down to the price range of many more people. (It
- should also be noted that there is a program to support low-cost or
- no-cost licensing for academic researchers doing EMS studies with it.)
-
- The conferencing supported on it is much more structured and
- sophisticated that most other (all other?) products on the market. And
- GroupSystems will run over a LAN for local conferencing or a WAN for
- distance conferencing. The June 14, 1994 _PC Magazine_ reviews
- GroupSystems (DOS version) and several other meeting and conferencing
- systems. This issue is a must read for someone trying to decide what
- kind and what brand of conferencing groupware to purchase.
-
- (Disclaimer: while I don't work for Ventana - the marketer of
- GroupSystems - my dissertation advisor is CEO of the company, so I have
- obvious biases.)
-
-
- From: cloutier@eisner.decus.org (Steve Cloutier - Notes 'R Us)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Web Forums Anyone? Check out WebNotes
- Date: 1 Feb 95 16:58:14 -0500
-
- Web Conferencing anyone?
-
- We have created WebNotes, a Web interface to our NetNotes Forums and
- Conferencing system.
-
- NetNotes and WebNotes are organized into topics and replies. Binary
- attachments to notes are supported. NetNotes features multi-level
- security, but is very easy to set up and manage.
-
- The NetNotes / WebNotes server has a built-in text retrieval system. All
- notes are indexed "live" as they are entered.
-
- Note: Although WebNotes is quite usable and functional, it is still - as they
- say on the Web - "Undergoing some Construction" - so this is a good time to
- make comments, suggestions, etc. before everything is "frozen".
-
-
- The URL to WebNotes is: http://webnotes.ostech.com
-
- Be sure the check out the 'Read This First' before proceeding too far!
-
- Please place any bug reports, suggestions, etc in the NetNotes conference
- (using WebNotes or NetNotes), or if you cannot do that for some reason,
- please send mail to:
-
- webnotes@ostech.com
-
-
- NetNotes is a superset of DEC Notes and Vax Notes (hence the name), for those
- who are familiar with DEC Notes... We released the first NetNotes product
- almost 5 years ago. The Web implementation is farily recent.
-
-
- www group annotations
- ---------------------
- From: Marc-Andre Schenk <marc-andre.schenk@hec.unil.ch>
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: WDA: www group annotations
- Date: 19 Jan 1995 21:25:05 GMT
-
- I already announced this the last week of December.
- Sorry for those of you who were working during that
- period.
- I have written a small prototype allowing group
- annotations of Web documents. A draft of an article
- describing WDA is at URL
- http://eliot.unil.ch:8085/docs/wda-article.html
-
- I'd really appreciate your comments (annotations) on
- this article (I take all comments, good or bad).
-
- On another subject:
- For those of you who do not yet know Ubique's
- Virtual Places(TM), I *strongly* urge you to check the
- URL
- http://www.ubique.com/
- This is certainly THE BEST groupware tool on the Web.
- Download their sesame viewer if you have a UNIX box, we
- will be able to meet "in some Web document" and I'll take
- you for a ride on my bus.
- Hurry up Ubique is going to be very successful.
- Regards,
- Marc-Andre Schenk
-
-
- GroupKit
- --------
- From: roseman@janu.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Mark Roseman)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: permissions in GroupKit
- Date: 18 Oct 94 13:51:55
-
- > In GrouKit you can send commands with 4gk_toAll4 or 4gk_toUserNr4.
- > I want to make a command like 4gk_toGroup4. Each participant of a
- > conference is a member of a special usergroup. So when you send a command
- > with 4gk_toGroup4 only the members of this group will receive the message.
- > If there is anybody out there you have informations about this topic or
- > knows where to get informations about it, please tell me!
-
- look at the code in gk_toAll from conf.tcl; you'll need to write a
- function that determines if a particular user is in the group, then
- simply call this function within the loop to determine if you want
- to send that person the message.
-
-
-
- From: roseman@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Mark Roseman)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware,comp.lang.tcl
- Subject: ANNOUNCE: GroupKit 3.0 available for ftp
- Date: 6 Feb 1995 23:34:27 GMT
-
-
- Version 3.0 of GroupKit is available for ftp at:
-
- ftp::/ftp.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/projects/grouplab/software/groupkit-3.0.tar.Z
-
- There is also a compiled version available if you happen to be running on
- a Sun workstation under SunOS 4.1.3.
-
- What is GroupKit?
- -----------------
- GroupKit is a freely-available toolkit for developing real-time groupware
- systems such as shared text editors, drawing programs, meeting support
- tools and so on. GroupKit runs on Unix systems under X11, and is based
- on the Tcl/Tk language (also freely available) from UC Berkeley.
- GroupKit is designed to make developing groupware tools only "slightly
- harder" than single user tools, and has a very quick learning time, even
- if you don't know Tcl or Tk. Its been used in a number of HCI/CSCW
- courses at different universities for example.
-
- Whats New in Version 3.0?
- -------------------------
- There's been some fairly substantial changes since version 2.2, mainly
- to do with events and environments. Events let you know when "interesting"
- things happen in the groupware conference, and environments provide a
- shareable data structure for exchanging information between conferences.
- As well, there is a "class builder" for designing new compound widgets
- (several, such as a multi-user scrollbar are included), and support for
- building new conference management systems has been completely overhauled.
-
- Where do I go for more info?
- ----------------------------
- Please check out the information on our World Wide Web page:
-
- http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/projects/grouplab/projects/groupkit
-
- There is also a mailing list, groupkit-users@cpsc.ucalgary.ca, which
- anyone using GroupKit should probably join; drop a note to
- groupkit-users-request@cpsc.ucalgary.ca. Bug reports and other comments
- should be addressed to groupkit-bugs@cpsc.ucalgary.ca. Also, if you're
- doing anything particularly interesting with GroupKit we'd like to
- hear about it.
-
- Mark
- --
- Mark Roseman, Research Associate phone: (403) 220-3532 / 220-6087
- Dept. of Computer Science fax: (403) 284-4707
- University of Calgary email: roseman@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
- Calgary, Alta CANADA T2N 1N4 http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~roseman
-
-
- Quality at Work
- ---------------
- From: schneider@horus
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: QDM
- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 16:29:13
-
- In article <3heidf$oes@News1.mcs.com> Paul Gustafson <pgustafs@csc.com> writes:
- >From: Paul Gustafson <pgustafs@csc.com>
- >Subject: QDM
- >Date: 10 Feb 1995 02:18:23 GMT
-
- >Looking for any info on the QDM "Quality at Work" groupware product ...
-
- Quality Decision Management, Inc.
- 200 Sutton Street, Suite 225
- North Andover, MA 01845
- (508)688-8266
-
- Uli Schneider, Siemens Nixdorf AG, Munich, Germany
-
-
- Whiteboard
- ----------
- From: feher@nosc.mil (Bela Feher)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Wanted: Whiteboard for Mac/PC
- Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 00:27:05 GMT
-
- Contact Group Logic, Inc. at 1408 N. Fillmore St., Suite 10, Arlington V
- 22201 (703) 528-1555 or (703) 528-3296 (fax) re: their product
- "Whiteboard". It is a cross-platform commercial product recently available
- and I'm sure they would be glad to provide info about it.
-
- Bela Feher 619/553-9226
- (voice)
- NCCOSC RDTE Div 44210 619/553-9229 (fax)
- San Diego CA 92152-7252 feher@nosc.mil
-
-
- From: mdplusch@mit.edu (Mike Plusch)
- Subject: Inexpensive shared computer whiteboard for Macs
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 22:42:08 GMT
-
- In my company, we've implemented a relatively cheap computer
- whiteboard with off-the-shelf hardware and applications.
-
- Summary:
- - runs on Macs or PCs
- - allows multiple users to share a computer (via Timbuktu)
- - computer whiteboard using pen tablets (Walcom, or MacHandwriter)
- and a shareware application called LightningPaint
-
- Sample scenario of ad-hoc global meeting:
- There is a tablet at each site that anybody can use. When you want a
- inter-site meeting with a shared whiteboard, you borrow a tablet at your
- site, then conference call the participants (it's best with a
- full-duplex speaker phone). Then use Timbuktu to
- get people connected to one shared machine running a paint program
- (and any other program you want to share). Participants can also run
- other applications on their local machine for a private workspace.
- Since current applications only support one cursor, set the protocol
- that you have control of the shared-computer when you are talking, and
- you give up control when the cursor stops moving.
- The paint program provides a good whiteboard although you can share
- any application on the computer.
-
- Assumptions:
- - a pen-based tablet at each site that can be moved
- between computers.
- - all computers have Timbuktu installed.
- - the shared computer has a simple paint program
-
- LightningPaint is a cheap, fast paint program called that works well
- with the tablets and free-hand drawings/text.
-
- You can easily annotate a screen by taking a screen snapshot using
- command-shift-3, then opening the Screen1 document with LightningPaint.
-
- With Timbuktu it's easy to let someone share your computer on an ad-hoc
- basis by admitting temporary guests.
-
- Software and hardware used with prices and suppliers.
- LightningPaint 1.1, $14
- available via ftp from sumex.stanford.edu
- by Humayun Lari, 14117 Frontier Ln, Burnsville MN 55337 USA
-
- Walcom tablets, MacHandwriter
- from MacConnection/MacWarehouse about $325
-
- Timbuktu Pro
- from MacConnection/MacWarehouse for $43 per license in a 30-pack.
-
-
- From: dmittleman@bpavms.bpa.arizona.edu (Daniel Mittleman)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Whiteboard capability needed
- Date: 26 Feb 1995 16:18 MST
-
- In article <3iqp6s$42l@earth.usa.net>, crc@earth (John Graaff/Cheyenne Research Corp) writes...
- >What capabilities are available for a small business consulting firm to
- >offer same time/different place whiteboard capabilities? We would like to
- >offer more than just text.
-
- Consider IBM's Person2Person, Intel's ProShare, and Ventana's
- GroupSystems for Windows all of which contain whiteboard modules which
- will work in same time/different place environments.
-
- Groupsystems contains lots of other packaged software (for
- brainstorming, group discussions, voting, and meeting management) which
- you haven't indicated you are interested in (and therefore costs more
- money), so if you want just a whiteboard either of the two former
- products might be the right solution for you.
-
- All three products have some differences among what kinds of transport
- environments they function in (LAN, WAN, ISDN, Internet, etc.), P2P and
- ProShare support full motion video, P2P and ProShare are only point to
- point right now (I think) while Groupsystems is multi-point, and all
- three have different application suites so you might want to check them
- all out to see which best meets your needs.
-
- Intel can be reached at: 800-538-3373 in the US and Canada
- +44-793-431155 in Europe
- +1-503-629-7354 from other locations
-
- Ventana can be reached at: 800-368-6338 in the US
- 1-602-325-8228 from other locations
- sales@ventana.com via internet
-
- And depending upon your specific planned use of the environment, you
- might want to consider including Xerox's Liveboard or Smart
- Technology's SmartSystem 2000. Both would give you a 4x6 foot white
- board in each conference room which your meeting participants could
- sketch on.
-
- ===========================================================================
- daniel david mittleman - danny@arizona.edu - (602) 621-2932
-
- [disclaimer: I don't work for any of these three companies, but I do
- work for the CEO of Ventana so have bias in that direction.]
-
-
- From: paulw@world.std.com (Insitu Inc.)
- Subject: Re: Whiteboard capability needed
- Organization: Insitu Inc.
- Date: Mon, 27 Feb 1995 03:13:59 GMT
-
- John Graaff/Cheyenne Research Corp (crc@earth) wrote:
- : What capabilities are available for a small business consulting firm to
- : offer same time/different place whiteboard capabilities? We would like to
- : offer more than just text.
-
- Insitu has released a distributed real time document/object editing suite
- which incorporates OLE 2.0, Windows Sockets & TAPI. This means a group of
- you can edit a document from MS Word, for example, in realtime and each
- retain a copy afterwards.
-
- A 30-day demo copy is available on our BBS at +1 (617) 279 3118 and via
- anonymous FTP (email sales@insitu.com for details)
-
-
- Insitu Conference is the first Microsoft Windows document conferencing
- software to fully utilize the power and potential of Object Linking &
- Embedding 2.0 (OLE) via a TCP/IP network.
-
- Insitu Conference forms the bridge between the integrated office computing
- environment (through OLE) and networked PCP2s (TCP/IP).
-
- The Product
-
- Insitu Conference combines
- .M OLE 2.0 Distributed Container
- .M Industry standard Windows Sockets 1.1 TCP/IP networking
- .M Shared Whiteboard for annotating documents and images
- .M Integrated Telephony through Microsoft/Intel Rg TAPI
-
- Object Linking & Embedding
-
- Insitu Conference is an OLE 2.0 compliant container, allowing users to
- simultaneously comment on and edit documents created by other applications
- from within Insitu ConferenceP2s familiar interface. The power of OLE 2.0
- is enhanced through the implementation of a "distributed" container,
- giving people the ability to freely distribute and edit documents over the
- TCP/IP link.
-
- Windows Sockets 1.1
-
- Networking connectivity has been implemented through the Windows Sockets
- 1.1 API guaranteeing TCP/IP vendor independent compatibility.
-
- Annotation tools
-
- The Insitu Conference environment supports capturing any image present on
- the Windows desktop.
-
- Conferences can be formal, with a chairman or moderator controlling the
- synchronization and flow of workspaces or a general free for all.
-
- Telephony
-
- The voice link is integrated into Insitu Conference through the
- Microsoft/Intel Telephony API.
-
-
- From: mikee@sys8.wfc.com (Mike Eggleston)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Whiteboard capability needed
- Date: 27 Feb 1995 14:39:31 GMT
-
- >>>>> "John" == John Graaff/Cheyenne Research Corp <crc@earth> writes:
- In article <3iqp6s$42l@earth.usa.net> crc@earth (John Graaff/Cheyenne Research Corp) writes:
-
- > What capabilities are available for a small business consulting firm
- > to offer same time/different place whiteboard capabilities? We
- > would like to offer more than just text.
-
- It would be simplest to me to use the Tk/Tcl system with the TkDP
- (Distributed Processing) extensions that come with a white board
- application as part of the extensions.
-
- Tk/Tcl: ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:/ucb/tcl (you need tcl and tk file both)
- TkDP: ftp.aud.alcatel.edu:/pub/tcl? (look for tkdp I think)
-
- After all, its free and it works well.
-
- BTW, this is for Unix and X-Windows.
- --
- --
- Mike Eggleston Walker Financial, Inc.
- (817)732-0398 3909 Hulen Street
- (817)735-1726 (FAX) Fort Worth, Texas 76107
-
-
- Market mechanism for e-mail volume
- ----------------------------------
- From: fullerr@bacalao.usc.edu (Rodney Fuller)
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Market mechanism for e-mail volume
- Date: 10 Jun 1994 12:49:07 -0700
-
- In article <rthomasCr61q7.K9D@netcom.com>, rthomas@netcom.com (Russell Thomas) writes:
- |> I have an idea for controlling e-mail traffic volume based on a market
- |> approach.
- |>
- |> rodney fuller (fullerr@bacalao.usc.edu) wrote:
- |> > There are different ways to measure communication and coordination costs,
- |> > and a good productivity analysis needs to look at several.
- |>
- |> Why not control e-mail traffic volume by making the communication and
- |> coordination costs visible in the system as a form of real-time control?
-
- This is actually what my dissertation is on--finding adaptive metrics
- of coordination. Won't be done for a year or so, but It's nice to hear
- people talking about the ideas for use in general DSS applications.
-
- |> Imagine this: Each user of e-mail starts out with a "bank account" for
- |> e-mail (some function of # messages, message size, # recipients, etc.).
- |> Each message sent would have a "cost" deducted from the "bank account".
- |> Each sender's "bank account" is replenshed by the "credits" which come
- |> back from recipients, who in essense vote on the value of the message.
- |> The entire "accounting" system could be managed by the mail system, e.g.
- |> the mail reader/client could have a simple mechanism for recording the
- |> vote and forwarding it back to the sender's account.
- |>
- |> Thus, people who send fewer, shorter, higher-valued messages would be
- |> rewarded and junk e-mailers would soon be deprived of the capacity to
- |> send anything.
- |>
- |> The system could be extended to include e-mail screening.
-
- I think screening and allowing are two different issues--and there are
- many dynamics to it. The system you propose will LIMIT without
- selectively attending to differences in communication style, linguistic
- use of experts and novices, brainstorming and consensus making activities
- while allowing for some serious conflicts. The situations where those
- kinds of characteristics are beneficial are limited (but the US military
- before 1974 and today's HMO come to mind--organizations that resist
- change will be your best market for such a tool).
-
- Or! You could just be a bit more selective in how you limit
- communication and get a really great tool that allows for sustained
- coordination within a dynamic environment. You might want to read some
- semiotics for ideas--Claude Vogel comes to mind if you read french,
- but only because he is sitting behind me right now.
-
- |> What do you think? Does any mail or conferencing system do this?
-
- I have a few firms asking me to develop this based on my published
- papers. There seems to be a lot of interest into the application
- of coordination metrics.
-
- Rodney Fuller
- fullerr@cgsvax.claremont.edu or fullerr@usc.edu
-
-
- From: Kevin_Lacobie@agoric.com
- Newsgroups: comp.groupware
- Subject: Re: Market mechanism for e-mail volume
- Date: 15 Jun 1994 18:30:07 -0500
-
- Russell Thomas writes, "What do you think? Does any mail or conferencing
- system do this?" in reference to his market mechanism for e-mail volume.
-
- The American Information Exchange Corporation, a subsidiary of Autodesk, was
- an electronic market system service. AMiX had a regular email system, but
- it also had a negotiable contracting feature (you post a Request or Propose
- to another party, come to an Agreement, and then the system would
- automatically track contract terms (payment and delivery times) and handle
- the account management (debit/credit, with periodic clearings; i.e., they
- served as an account clearinghouse for multiple parties).
-
- As system usage evolved, the negotiable contracting feature turned out be a
- nice feature for email. While it did not replace the use of the regular
- email system (to nitpick just a little with Michael Rothschild's article in
- a recent _Forbes ASAP_), it was popularly used to pay someone to read or pay
- attention to one's email, in such terms as "OFFER: $1 for reading and
- replying to my query about ...". Of course, the contracting feature was
- used for substantial dollar amounts as well, such as online mini-consulting
- as originally envisioned by the designers.
-
- Currently, Agorics, Inc. in Los Altos is developing computational market
- solutions. A recent demo at Sun Microsystem's Interop booth showed
- computational markets in use to allocate network bandwidth -- to bid for
- higher Quality of Service (larger window, more colors, less compression) for
- real-time video, for example.
-
- Kevin Lacobie
- Agoric Enterprises, Inc.
- klacobie@agoric.com
-
-
- =====================================================================
-
-
- David S. Stodolsky Euromath Center University of Copenhagen
- david@euromath.dk Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30 Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C)
-