Amiga Plus 1995 #2/Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 2.iso/internet/faq/englisch/comp.groupware-products

Text File | 1995-04-11 | 99.4 KB | 2,521 lines

Archive-name: comp-groupware-faq/products1
Last-modified: 1994.5.4
Version: 2.1
Copyright: 1994 (c) David S. Stodolsky, PhD


Groupware Products
==================

This posting is primarily a test of the new setext format (see the
guidelines for further information). No attempt has been made to
organize this list, beyond removing obvious duplicates. Appearance of an
entry does not constitute an endorsement. Absence from the list does not
constitute a rejection. Send corrections and additions to the copyright
holder.

dss



Yellow Pages of CSCW
--------------------
Updates and additions must go to: [e-mail]

Pal S. Malm: The unOfficial Yellow Pages of CSCW               28 May 93 10:56

A new revision of my "Groupware List" now called "The unOfficial Yellow
Pages of CSCW" is ready for downloading. It contains 280 descriptions of
experimental and commercial groupware,  CSCW projects,  and systems with
groupware features.
The descriptions also contain e-mail, office, and ftp addresses, and
references to a bibliography at the end of the document. A (new) index,
sorted by classes, will help you navigate.
This list will give answers to many FAQs in comp.groupware.

The 50 page long document can be obtained in postscript format with
anonymous ftp from gorgon.tft.tele.no (192.135.199.112) in /pub/groupware.
A clean text file called TOC.txt is a copy of the table of contents.

This is how to do it:
                ftp gorgon.tft.tele.no
                Name (gorgon.tft.tele.no:...): anonymous
                Password: <your email address>
                ftp> cd pub/groupware
                ftp> ls
                cscw_yp.ps.Z
                cscw_yp.sea.bin
               HELP
                README
                TOC.ascii
                ftp> bin
                ftp> get README
                ftp> get cscw_yp.ps.Z
                ftp> bye
                221 Goodbye.
        > uncompress GrpwList.ps.Z
        > lpr GrpwList.ps
If you if run into trouble, download the file HELP.


Conferencing Systems
--------------------
Subject: SUMMARY: Conferencing Systems: Information Needed
Date: 4 Aug 93 14:37:54 GMT
Organization: Informatik, Univ. Stuttgart. W.Germany

========
Dietmar Zaig <[e-mail]> wrote [Translation by me]:

The English Company Mentec offers the videokonferencing system VS-1000
(Tel. [phone], Fax [phone], to Mr. Gledhill). The
system is based on H.261 and G.711 (audio) and is a plug-in card for
ISA-PCs.


[e-mail] (V. Suresh Kumar) wrote:

There are two PD conferencing tools I could think of:  Collage and shx
Collage runs on X-Workstations and PC (386++).

ftp ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu  ---  collage

ftp crl.dec.com ---  shx


[e-mail] (Kevin Davis) wrote:

News Release                                            Date: 19 Jul 1993

   PICTURETEL INTRODUCES TWO NEW GLOBAL VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCT FAMILIES
       WHICH OFFER COMPLETE, COMPATIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR COMPANIES OF ALL SIZES

DANVERS, Mass. (July 16, 1993) -- PictureTel Corporation, the global leader in
dial-up videoconferencing, today introduced new desk-top and low-cost  group
conferencing families of standards-based products that provide complete,
compatible videoconferencing solutions for all applications, including distance
learning, telemedicine and telemarketing.  Both product families are available
in five languages, including English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese.

The desk-top system, called the PictureTel LIVE(tm), PCS 100(tm), is a complete
global standards-based, personal visual communications add-on solution priced
at
US $5,995 for personal computers running Microsoft Windows 3.1(r).  PictureTel
LIVE provides dial-up visual communications, screen sharing and collaborative
computing over public switched digital networks.

Priced from US $13,995, the System 1000(tm) is a full-featured, low-cost,
standards-based group videoconferencing family which complements PictureTel's
high performance System 4000(tm) product family.  It is a global product that is
simple to order, install and use.  The System 1000 provides Full CIF support
for the TSS (formerly CCITT) H.320 videoconferencing standard.

Both new product families feature PictureTel's innovative new PT 724(tm) audio
algorithm and enhanced IDEC II(tm) echo cancellation with automatic gain control
and noise suppression.

Additionally, PictureTel announced low-cost upgrade paths to the Full CIF
H.320 standard for all of PictureTel's installed base, and an across-the-board
price cut of approximately 20 percent on the popular System 4000(tm)
videoconferencing family of products.

"The introduction of the System 1000 and PictureTel LIVE PCS 100 reconfirms
PictureTel as the global videoconferencing leader," said Norman E. Gaut,
president and CEO of PictureTel.  "These systems will clearly redefine the way
we meet by opening the interactive video market to include thousands of new
users in applications from the desktop to the auditorium.  And, by being
compatible with our installed base, they also protect our existing customers'
investments.  This announcement should be a `now is the time to buy' wake up
call for those companies who have been waiting to experience the benefits of
videoconferencing."

     PictureTel Introduces PictureTel LIVE Desktop Videoconferencing

Priced at US $5,995, the PictureTel LIVE, PCS 100 personal visual
communications system provides high-quality, high-performance Full CIF H.320
operation on any ISA bus PC running Microsoft Windows 3.1. The system's
full-color, full-motion live video and industry-leading audio communications
capabilities are fully integrated with its screen-sharing, collaborative
computing environment. As with all PictureTel videoconferencing equipment,
PictureTel LIVE is fully compatible with all PictureTel and competitive systems
operating in the H.320 mode.  It is available in either NTSC or PAL
configurations.

The  PCS 100 consists of two ISA boards which provide video and audio
compression and switching, high resolution Super VGA accelerated graphics,
video windowing, and a BRI ISDN interface. The system supplies high resolution
Full CIF video and 7Khz, full duplex audio for effective communications between
desktops as well as with group systems. The PCS 100 also includes PictureTel's
new FlipCam(tm), which can be quickly adjusted to most subjects and lighting
conditions using manual zoom, focus and aperture controls, an innovative
speaker phone/handset combination, and a full-featured, easy-to-use user
interface software.

"The PictureTel LIVE desktop system is a PC-based system that will provide new
levels of quality for dial-up visual communications in conjunction with
collaborative computing capabilities,"  said Gaut.  "With PictureTel's new
desktop solution, customers will be able to gain access to thousands of people
and organizations around the globe. With the touch of a button, you can
initiate a video call to work one-on-one with other desktop video users or
attend group meetings or classes remotely."

PictureTel LIVE will be distributed through PictureTel direct sales
representatives as well as selected dealers and distributors worldwide.  The
system will be available  beginning in the fourth quarter.

        PictureTel Introduces System 1000, Low-Cost Group System

The new System 1000 low-cost videoconferencing family offers standards-based
functionality, including  Full CIF H.320 operation, starting at $13,995.  The
system comes in two basic configurations -- the Model 30 and Model 50 -- both
available in either NTSC or PAL for worldwide deployment.  The Model 30 is
equipped with a 20-inch monitor, FlipCam, picture-in-picture, multipoint,
choice of five languages, and integrated BRI interface.  The Model 50 has a
27-inch monitor, pan, tilt and zoom camera, camera presets, multipoint,
picture-in-picture, a cart, and integrated ISDN BRI interface  Both systems can
be configured with optional V.35/RS-366, dual CSUs or RS-449 interfaces.

Additionally, customers can select a $5,000 optional feature package for
either model which includes two times CIF graphics, far-end camera control, VCR
audio, and 384Kbps operation.

"The System 1000 opens the market to a whole new class of cost-sensitive
buyers," said Gaut. "It fully complements the high-performance PictureTel
System 4000(tm) family by providing a full-featured yet low-cost videoconferencing
family that leverages PictureTel's video, audio and networking technologies."

The System 1000 will be available beginning in September and will be
distributed through existing PictureTel channels worldwide.

              PictureTel Announces Advanced Audio Capabilities

PictureTel also announced today a new audio algorithm, PT 724(tm), that provides
exceptional audio quality to both PictureTel LIVE and the System 1000 products.
 PT 724 offers high quality, full duplex 7KHz audio while consuming only 24Kbps
of the transmission bandwidth.  The new algorithm also increases video
performance by freeing up approximately  30 percent more bandwidth for the
video signal.  Also included in the new audio package is  IDEC II(tm),  an
enhanced version of PictureTel's patented Integrated Dynamic Echo Cancellation
technology with new noise suppression and automatic gain control features.

                System 4000(tm) Prices Reduced By 20 Percent;
          All New Systems To Ship With Both SG3(tm) and Link-64E(tm)

PictureTel also announced price reductions of approximately 20 percent for its
industry-leading family of System 4000 videoconferencing systems.  And, the
company said that effective immediately all new System 4000 systems would be
shipped with both the PictureTel proprietary  (SG3(tm)) and standard Full CIF
H.320 (Link-64E(tm)) algorithms included in the new low base price.

The price reductions were made possible through engineering and technology
cost reductions as well as through manufacturing economies of scale made
possible through volume shipment growth over the past year.

Also, by including both the H.320 and SG3 algorithms in the base price of each
new system, PictureTel is able to maintain system-wide compatibility with its
System 1000 and PictureTel LIVE families.  The company has been providing
attractive upgrade paths to standards for all customers beginning with its
VideoSlate(tm) annotation announcement in May.

All PictureTel system families, including the System 1000 and PictureTel LIVE
are compatible through PictureTel's industry-leading networking products such
as the M-8000(tm) Multipoint Bridge.  The M-8000, which can run either H.320 or
SG3, also has the ability to link on a single call, sites using a variety of
carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, various PTTs, MCI or dedicated private circuits.
 The compatibility achieved through the bridge provides all PictureTel
customers with unsurpassed connectivity worldwide.

PictureTel Corporation (NASDAQ: PCTL)  headquartered in Danvers, Mass.,
develops, manufactures and markets a full range of visual telecommunications
solutions that are "Redefining the Way the World Meets.(tm)"  PictureTel enables
worldwide video communications through an easy to use, dial-up family of
standards-based videoconferencing systems.
=========


DeskTop Conferencing

DeskTop Conferencing enables up to eight people to share screens.
Windows and Novel environments at about $299 per user.

Jeanette Carrol
Fujitsu Networks Industry, Inc.
1-800-446-4736


GroupSystems
------------
Ventana Corporation
1430 East Fort Lowell
Tucson, AZ 85719
[phone]
[phone].


FarSite for Windows
-------------------
For efficient interactive communication, FarSite for Windows
provides electronic metaphors for common presentation tools,
including a shared whiteboard, concurrent on-line pointers, a
variety of drawing tools, and a special electronic tray for
storing changes made to any individual screen display, or "slide."
It also offers a tool for adding or editing text in any Windows
font style or size; a variety of annotation editing options;
familiar Windows cut, copy and paste features; and context-
sensitive, on-line help.

To create a FarSite presentation, users capture screens from
other applications, using a built-in snapshot tool.  FarSite for
Windows also imports information directly from 11 common graphic
file formats, including PCX, TIFF, EPS and JPEG.

Designed for point-to-point use through a modem, FarSite for
Windows features advanced compression techniques and transmits
typical slides in less than seven seconds at 14,400 bits per
second.  It supports the recently adopted ITU-T (formerly CCITT)
T.120 conferencing standards.


System Requirements
-----
FarSite for Windows requires a 386- or 486-based Windows-
compatible personal computer, Microsoft Windows 3.1, 4 MB RAM and
1.5 MB disk space.  Users also need a mouse or mouse-compatible
pointing device and a modem (9,600 bps recommended) or Hayes-
compatible ISDN adapter.


Pricing and Availability
-------
FarSite for Windows, Standard Edition, is available immediately
directly from DataBeam or its resellers, at a suggested retail
price of $179.  The package is also bundled with AT&T Paradyne's
new DataPort 2001 multimedia modem.

DataBeam plans to introduce a Corporate Edition of FarSite for
Windows during the first quarter of 1994.  FarSite Corporate
Edition will add support for multiple users communicating over a
variety of local- and wide-area networks. DataBeam will also
pursue a strategy of licensing its core technology to
independent software vendors (ISVs) and original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) for incorporation into other product lines.


Contact Information
---
Product Information:  800-877-2325
FAX:                  606-245-3528
Internet Address:     [e-mail]

3191 Nicholasville Road
Lexington, KY 40503


Huddle
------
VMS host PC peer based conferencing system.

Inovative Software
POB 13170
Denver, CO 80201-4500
[phone]


PacerForum
----------
It is focused on conferencing
and project collaboration using a bulletin board discussion model.
Support for multiple sound, file, application and graphic attachments per
"posting" is provided.  Mark is correct that after 2+ years of offering a
Mac only solution we are rolling out Windows client and server components
in phases.

Pacer can be reached via phone at (800) -PACER-02.

Offices:

7911 Herschel Ave.                    1900 West Park Drive
Suite 402                        Suite 280
La Jolla, CA 92037                    Westborough, MA 01581
[phone]                    [phone]

Peter Coppola
Pacer Software, Inc.
[e-mail]


TeamWARE
--------
from ICL.  They
describe their product as being "a client/server based office information
system for Windows 3.1, Mac or OS/2 clients and UNIX, OS/2 or Windows NT
servers.  It provides mail, conferencing/bulletin board, calendar,
document storage/retrieval and workflow functions."

Peter Coppola
Pacer Software, Inc.
[e-mail]


FirstClass
----------
Date: 21 Jan 1994 18:24:55 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Maury S. Markowitz)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: What Other Groupware Packages Are There?
Newsgroups: comp.groupware

  We make a product called "FirstClass" which is certainly competition to the
products you've mentioned.  Although it may work in a slightly different
fashion, the results are typically better, and always faster, than what other
groupware packages offer.

  FirstClass is built around an e-mail system, but with some interesting
extensions.  As far as e-mail goes, it has all the expected functionality,
forward, reply (to all, conferences, sender etc.), unsend (rework), an
unlimited number of TO and CC names, an unlimited number of file attachments,
styled textm receipts etc. etc.

[...]

  In addition, FirstClass uses the concept of "public mailboxes" for
conferencing.  Like a standard "BBS" this includes threading, new message
tracking, file transfer etc.  It uses the full mail system, so you can send a
message to a conference and CC it to a person, or even send it to several
different conferences.  Only one message is stored on the server in these
cases.  Better yet, the system allows a fully hierarchical layout for the
conferences, unlike some systems that force you to use a flat directory.

  The interface can only be described as "excellent".  Unlike Notes which
requires 19 disks for the client (according to MacUser), FirstClass client
for both Mac and Windows fits on a single disk.  All communications between
the client and server are handled by a single error-free encrypted packet
level link (even over modems) that is fully bidirectional.

  The client is also fully async, you can upload any number of files,
download any number of files, participate in any number of "chats" and read
and write a many messages as you have memory for, all at the same time.  I
know of no other product with this feature.  This is most important for users
on modems, who might be on very low speed links. In fact, the remote access
portion is so good, that it's the basis for hundreds of public BBS systems
open to the public, with somewhere in the range of a 1/4 million users for
these public systems alone.


Second Sight BBS
----------------
Although graphical interface BBS software and mail packages such
as FirstClass, TeleFinder, and NovaLink Pro have taken over much
of the Mac-based BBS, service bureau, and email market, text-based
BBS software such as Second Sight is still popular. The universal
VT100-compatible interface that's presented to all users
regardless of client platform carries a strong advantage; the
graphical packages require specialized client software that is
typically available for a limited range of platforms.

The host software supports serial DTE rates (between computer and
modem) from 300 to 57,600 bps, and DCE rates (between modems) from
300 to 14,400 bps, plus 16,800 bps and the yet-to-be-released
28,800 bps speed. Hardware handshaking (RTS/CTS flow control) is
fully supported on Macs equipped with a "Gpi" (general purpose
input) pin in their serial ports; the Mac Plus, Classic, and LC
family Macs are not so equipped. The software now offers "true
multi-line support," including support for Creative Solutions's
Hurdler and Applied Engineering's QuadraLink and QuadraLink DMA
cards, all of which are multiple-serial-port NuBus cards.

The FreeSoft Company -- 412/846-2700 -- 412/847-4436 (fax)
(Full review in TidBITS#208/10-Jan-94)


COLLAGE
-------
--Contact: Dave Thompson ([e-mail]), NCSA.
--Platf.: Unix/X, Mac (and PC).
A synchronous collaborative data analysis tool for use over the Internet.
Features include:
Shared whiteboard, screen capture/sharing, chat box, shared text editor +++
Available on anonymous ftp server ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu (141.142.20.50)
/UNIX/XCollage/Collage1.2. Documentation for the Unix version of collage
can be found on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the folder
/UNIX/XCollage/XCollage1.2/DOCS.


P2P: Person To Person/2
-----------------------
--Contact: IBM, [e-mail]
--Platf.:  OS/2 2.x, Windows 3.1 released. AIX in beta test (contact
           above address for more information on AIX).

P2P allows up to 8 users to connect their PCs or workstations and share
information in real time across a variety of networks and protocols -
NETBIOS, TCP/IP, APPC, ISDN, PSTN using modems. Collaborative tools
include chalkboard, network clipboard and DDE, file transfer, text
message exchange and digital video (with additional hardware).
All operating system version interoperate so calls may contain a mixture
of OS/2, Windows and AIX machines using several different connection
types simultaneously. Price $285 for a single license, $1875 for 10 licenses.


XChange
-------
XChange - an X-window based conferencing system

[e-mail] (Terry Tompkins)


ForComment
----------
Computer Associates


Meeting Space
-------------
Meeting Space has a number of other advantages over physical
meetings. Since everything takes place on your Mac, it's trivial
to record the complete minutes of the meeting, or to transfer
information from the meeting record to other applications (I hate
transcribing). Unlike physical meetings, you can be in more than
one place at once, and if the meeting gets slow, you can do
something more productive than doodling on a pad (like switching
out to your word processor). Finally, if you've ever been in a
meeting with someone you don't know, it can be awkward to find out
who they are and what they do, whereas in Meeting Space you can
just click on that person's icon to display personal information,
including phone number, job title, duties, and so on.

I should note up front that Meeting Space is text and graphics-
based - it doesn't attempt to do video or sound since few people
have the necessary equipment and few networks can handle the
traffic. However, you can appear as any one of a large set of
icons (or make your own) and in fact you can clone yourself to
appear in multiple places at the same time, and each clone can
have a different icon to indicate its role or mood

Meeting Space provides tools for structuring meetings and keeping
them moving, including agendas, automatic recorders, and
presentation screens. Planned for future releases are tokens for
speaking, moderator gavels, white boards, voting, and various
privacy enhancements like digital signatures, encrypted network
connections, and digital envelopes. You can create presentations
in any application that can print or export data through copy &
paste to the Scrapbook, and if you've ever had a bunch of people
crowding around a small screen, you can see that a virtual
presentation could work a lot better than a physical one.

Meeting Space requires a 68020 or better Macintosh along with
System 7 and at least 1 MB of RAM and 1 MB of disk space (for
either the client or the server). Meeting Space works over
AppleTalk networks such as standard LocalTalk and modems connected
via ARA, and over TCP/IP networks like the Internet with MacTCP
and an appropriate connection (via a network or SLIP or PPP). The
client software may be freely distributed, but the server software
is a bit steep at $1,750 for a five-user license ($350 per user on
a scale that drops the per-user cost to $200 for twenty users).
World Benders offers discounts for site licenses, educational
uses, and resellers. In general, they're aiming at the business
market that can compare the cost of Meeting Space to a plane
ticket, or even a dozen time-wasting trips across town, and
quickly recoup the cost. In an especially clever move, the server
allows more than the specified number of users to connect, but if
you're over the limit (and this applies to everyone who connects
after the limit is reached), it lets you connect for only 10
minutes, enough time to get on, find someone, talk briefly, and
get off. If someone else disconnects while you're on borrowed
time, so to speak, you become a full user with no time limit. The
client software is currently only available for the Macintosh, but
World Benders plans to create Windows and Unix clients later this
year.

World Benders -- 603/881-5432 (voice & fax)
[e-mail]

Extracted from a report in TidBITS#210/24-Jan-94.


EBT
---
From: Dan Clapper <[e-mail]>

EBT is a standalone electronic brainstorming tool that runs in the Novell
environment.  EBT does NOT require installation on a file server to run.

to get EBT:
1.  Anonymous ftp to:  omnigate.clarkson.edu
2.  Change into the /pub/gsstools directory.
3.  Get the EBT file there.  At this point it is the only thing in the
    directory.

It is in a self-extracting zipped file with a three or four page "user' guide."
I think you should be able to get it up and running in less than a half hour.
The entire program consists of two small executable files.
You can run it from a floppy disk, pc
hard disk or the file server hard disk.

EBT can be run in either anonymous or non-anonymous mode.  The difference
between the two, not surprisingly, is that in non-anonymous mode the user is
initially prompted for their name, and that name then appears to the left of
any contributions they make in the public window of all participants screens.
In either mode, however, the researcher can track the orginator of any ideas
by the unique identifier (based on the network address of the user's machine).

This has to be considered a "beta" version.  It works fine on our ethernet
network here, and theoretically it should work on any network hardware
standard (Token Ring, Arcnet, etc.) that runs Novell, but I can't be really
certain of it until people try it out.

It may lack some of the polish of commercial products, but the price is right!

If you give it a try, please let me know how it works for you.  We are working
on a new and improved version and are open to incorporating suggestions into
that version.


eVote
-----
eVote is a user-interface and a database server especially crafted to
accept and report on vote data generated by an online community.  The
specialized database server, or vote-keeper, is called "The Clerk".

eVote is distributed with a sample user-interface, the eVote Demo.  In
practice, The Clerk will work with any user-interface that calls its
library of C functions. When your groupware application communicates
with The Clerk in this way, your application will support eVoting.

Demo:  [phone]
                     that's  49-eVote

          Log in as:   eVote

10am to 5pm, California time.
          Other times by luck or appointment.

[e-mail] (Marilyn Davis)

Frontier Systems
3790 El Camino Real, #147
Palo Alto, CA 94306


Groupware Administration and Registration
-----------------------------------------
Re: Groupware Administration and Registration
Date: 4 Apr 91 01:14:27 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Tom Bannon)
Organization: TI Computer Science Center, Dallas

>     * apprising network users of the existence of running conferences
>    * allowing users access control to these conferences (ie, joining,
>    leaving, etc.)
>    * performing other administrative function including conference
>    initiation, termination, security functions, scheduling, etc.
>
> ("Conference" means instance of running groupware application to me).
>
.
.
.
I've written a paper and constructed a couple of prototypes dealing EXACTLY
with this problem.  The paper is:

group: A Distributed Group Specification and Management Service
Thomas J. Bannon and Ivor P. Page
Proceedings of the Summer 1990 UKUUG Conference, pp. 61-76
ISBN 0 9513181 7 9

UKUUG stands for United Kingdom Unix User's Group;


Appointment Schedulers
----------------------
From: [e-mail] (DaviD W. Sanderson)
Subject: Re: Looking for Appointment Scheduler
Date: 1 Sep 92 23:23:49 GMT
Organization: UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center

Here is a summary of the replies people sent me, organized by package
name.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    ALL-IN-1
Env:    ?
Maker:    DEC

~From:    Dave Bell <[e-mail]>

    [...] look at the shared diary facilities provided by tools
    such as ALL-IN-1 (from Digital) which does the diary checking
    for meetings.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Calendar Manager
Env:    SunOS (OpenWindows 3.0)
Maker:    Sun

~From:    Bruce Barnett <[e-mail]>

    Only runs on a Sun, but any X server can display it.

~From:    Nannette Simpson <[e-mail]>

    Sun has a reasonable calendaring program called Calendar
    Manager which runs over the network and allows users to share
    calendars.  It comes bundled with the DeskSet.

~From:    Lee Richardson <[e-mail]>

    The Sun application cm (Calendar Manager) would seem to address
    this in a reasonable way, for Sun stations using Sun
    Openwindows.

~From:    Charles Tarzian <[e-mail]>

    It does exactly what you're looking for.  To use it in a
    multiple vendor environment buy X server software for your Macs
    and PC's and set up accounts for those users on the Sun.  The
    Sun server becomes your mail and calendar server.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Calendar Tool
Env:    SunOS (OpenWindows 3.0)
Maker:    Sun

~From:    Lou Bershad <[e-mail]>

    It lets you view a merged schedule and add appointments to
    multiple calendars and/or you can send e-mail to the
    attendees.  If you choose to let others add their own
    appointments (which we do, because it has a bug where
    appointments scheduled by others do not have alarms associated
    with them), then if they are using the Sun mail tool they can
    drag the e-mail message and drop it into the calendar tool and
    it schedules the meeting for them directly.

~From:    Steven Poltrock <[e-mail]>

    The latest version of calentool in Sun's OpenWindow environment
    will merge several calendars so you can see when there is an
    open time slot.

~From:    Peter Loeffler <[e-mail]>

    Its a group calendar with a graphical visualisation for
    browsing multiple calendars of colleagues.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Caucus
Env:    "Many, from PCs to Mainframes"
Maker:    Camber-Roth
    A Division of Aule-Tek, Inc.    Telephone:  [phone]
    1223 Peoples Avenue                   Fax:  [phone]
    Troy, New York 12180            E-Mail:  [e-mail]

~From:    Jim Tremblay <[e-mail]>

    Caucus organizes your input as on-line group meetings or
    private messages.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Clockwise
Env:    "Unix"
Maker:    Phase II sofware corporation
    238 Broadway
    Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139-1926
    [phone].

~From:    Francois Schiettecatte <[e-mail]>

    You can schedule events (using resources such as conference
    rooms, etc) with multiple people. I will notify people by
    email. It will also manage conflicts, etc.

~From:    bob <[e-mail]>

    Tell them MMB sent you.

~From:    Wayne Lyle <sjuphil![e-mail]>

    Not real sophisicated but it does the trick.  A new release is
    coming out soon to make group scheduling easier.  The price is
    reasonable, a couple hundred dollars for enough tokens to run a
    resonable sized office (a token is needed for each concurrent
    user).  We have a 45 user licence that seems to easily cover an
    office of about 250 people.

    The interface is what appeals to us the most, since it can be
    run from any terminal or from a GUI.  Most of the ones I have
    seen only run from the GUI, and having 200+ terminals makes
    these programs useless.  Not saying this is the best thing but
    at least it does the trick for us.

    They have a pretty good demo policy, for $50 you get a timed
    full working copy.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Meeting Maker
Env:    Mac, Windows (soon)
Maker:    ON Technology
    on.tech@applelink, [phone]

~From:    Tim Stephens <[e-mail]>

    ON will send you a demo (good for a month) suitable for 25
    users.  This product will also schedule rooms/resources for
    you, and attach text documents/agendas to meeting proposals.

~From:    Peter Calingaert <[e-mail]>

    Investigate MeetingMaker for networked Macintoshes.

~From:    Jeff Cantwell <[e-mail]>

    Meeting Maker for the Macintosh is a very nice program, is easy
    to use, and has lots of features.

~From:    Steven Poltrock <[e-mail]>

    On Technology sells a program called Meeting Maker for the
    Macintosh that exactly addresses your question.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Office Vision
Env:    IBM mainframes
Maker:    IBM

~From:    Steven Poltrock <[e-mail]>

    IBM's Office Vision product offers a calendar with similar
    functionality [to other group calendar programs], but it is
    only available for mainframes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:    Synchronize
Env:    SunOS 4.1.x systems under Motif, at least (possibly others)
Maker:    CrossWind Technologies
    6630 Highway 9, Suite 201
    Felton, CA 95018

~From:    Hugh LaMaster <[e-mail]>

    It seems to do a very good job of integrating individual
    schedules and groups with meetings, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Sanjiv K. Bhatia)
Date: 2 Sep 92 21:46:19 GMT

A good compilation of lists has already been posted by David Sanderson.  I just
thought of pointing out a PD package called appt which runs under Unix (does
not require X windows).  I just checked the archie server and it seems to be
available on five sites.  However, if someone sends me mail, I can send it out
to you as well.  I use it to keep track of my appointments.

Sanjiv
--
Sanjiv K. Bhatia        Department of Mathematics & Computer Science
[e-mail]        University of Missouri -- St. Louis
voice: (314)-553-6520        8001 Natural Bridge Road
                St. Louis, MO 63121-4499

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [e-mail] (Fred Weil)
Subject: Re: Calendar managers: no interaction standard
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 1994 11:56:35 +0000


UNIX products that do calendaring:-

                UNIPLEX Version 7   from UNIPLEX

                Synchronize         from CrossWinds  (may be X.Windows only)

                Cliq                from Quadratron

                Office Power        from ICL

If you want to extend to X.Windows

               UNIPLEX onGO

               Synchronize

               Aster*x


Group Calendar/Scheduling
-------------------------
From: [e-mail] (Doug Obrecht)
Subject: Group Calendar/Scheduling S/W
Date: 11 Feb 94 21:02:15 GMT


QUESTION:

 Does anyone know if there is a group scheduling shareware package that
 operates under UNIX (X/openwin/etc) and PC's (DOS or Windows).
 available on the net?  We would like to keep track of and monitor meeting
 times amoung 40 or so people.

 If there are no shareware packages available, how about commercial packages?

============================================================
The following are addresses and phone numbers for companies mentioned
in the responses.

Uniplex Integration Systems, Inc.
600 E. Las Colinas Blvd., Suite 1400
Irving, TX  75039
800-356-8063; 214-556-0106

CrossWind Technologies, Inc.
6630 Hwy. 9, Suite 201
Felton, CA  95018
408-335-4988

ICL, Inc.
PO Box 19593, 9801 Muirlands Blvd.
Irvine, CA  92713
714-855-5500

Quadratron Systems, Inc.
31368 Via Colinas, Suite 108
Westlake Village, CA  91362
818-865-6655

Russell Information Sciences, Inc.
115 Columbia, Suite 100
Laguna Hills, CA  92656
714-362-4000

Phase II Software Corp.
21-G Olympia Ave., Suite 20
Woburn, MA  01801
800-735-2557; 617-937-0256

On Technology Corporation
1 Cambridge Center, Kendall Square
Cambridge, MA  02142
800-548-8871; 617-374-1400


CaLANdar product
----------------
From: [e-mail] (Terry Woodhouse)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Anyone using CaLANdar from MSI?
Date: 8 Mar 1994 14:24:11 GMT

I am looking for experiences (pro or con) with Microsystems Software
Inc's CaLANdar product.  This is basically a network scheduler plus
some chat and task tracking capabilities.  Any opinions welcome.

Terry Woodhouse
[e-mail]
The MITRE Corp., San Antonio TX

GroupIE and GroupIT
-------------------
Subject: Re: If you use/develop a groupware toolkit, read this (please)!
Date: 8 Mar 94 17:41:58

As GroupIE and GroupIT have been mentioned here, let me post my email
to Timur.

You can do anonymous ftp of GroupIE-related papers from

tk.telematik.informatik.uni-karlsruhe.de:pub/papers/NESTOR

The file 1STREAD.ME contains the references. You would probably
want to look at CSCWWS91, HCI91, ECSCW91, ECSCW93.

However, these papers are not very up-to-date. I am currently
working on a chapter on GroupIE for a book but this will take
some time.

GroupIE and GroupIT are implementations that have been done as
part of my PhD thesis in order to validate new concepts for supporting
distributed teamwork. The software is fully functional but not a product,
especially as far as documentation and user-friendlyness is concerned.

We used GroupIE and GroupIT within project NESTOR to support teamwork
between authors and learners in computer-aided learning. The software,
however, is generic i.e. adaptable to various application domains.

GroupIT (Group Interaction Tool) is an object-oriented graphical
multi-user editor with integrated email functionality. It stands out
for its flexible selection of interaction characteristics.

GroupIE (Group Interaction Environment) is a complete development and
runtime support system for CSCW applications. It is based on a
comprehensive model of distributed teamwork along the aspects of
interaction and coordination.

The software runs on Ultrix DECstations with TCP/IP on top of a
distribution extension to Smalltalk-80 that we wrote.

The model and the system are described in my dissertation
`Tom Ruedebusch, CSCW - Generische Unterstuetzung von Teamarbeit in
verteilten DV-Systemen, DUV (Gabler, Vieweg, Westdeutscher Verlag),
Wiesbaden, 1993, ISBN 3-8244-2043-0' but this book is in german...

Tom

PS: A new article describes the use of GroupIE for cooperation support
in computer-aided authoring and learning and will be published in the
proceedings of ED-MEDIA 94 in Vancouver, Canada.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tom Ruedebusch                          Tel: [phone]
Telematics - Telecooperation                Fax: [phone]
Department of Computer Science
University of Karlsruhe
D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany        [e-mail]
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: If you use/develop a groupware toolkit, read
Date: 9 Mar 1994 18:11:25 GMT

Another excellent product for the unix environment (Sun/Openwindows is where
I have used it) is KMS from Knowledge Management Systems. They are located
in the Pittsburgh PA area, but I don't have an address.

KMS is an extremely powerful distributed hypermedia system which has an
excellent toolset of basic functions from which users can create application
specific tools and processes.
-> Note I am not at all associated with the company, just an extremely
   satisfied (unfortunately former) user.

Mike Stoughton            ... who does not speak for
[e-mail]            Sverdrup Technology, Inc



David S. Stodolsky, PhD      Internet: [e-mail]
Inst. of Political Science               Internet: [e-mail]
Univ. of Copenhagen, Rosenborgg. 15            Tel.: + 45 32 97 66 74
DK-1130 Copenhagen K, Denmark                   Fax: + 45 31 59 76 44
Archive-name: comp-groupware-faq/products2
Last-modified: 1994.5.4
Version: 2.1
Copyright: 1994 (c) David S. Stodolsky, PhD


Groupware Products - Part 2
===========================


Mac Groupware Yellow Pages
--------------------------
Updates and additions must go to: [e-mail]

This is from the "PRODUCTS" section from the the August edition of the
"Mac Groupware Yellow Pages". I limit this list to shipping products that
are commercially available to any buyer. It is missing a few of the other
meeting scheduling packages, I hope to have a better list of these in the
next edition. If you know of other Mac products that you think should be
on the list, let me know.

I am also starting to collect information on MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2
groupware software packages, for a listing the PC Groupware Yellow Pages,
to be released mid-fall. If you are a publisher of a product in this
category, please send me a 50 word description, price, phone, fax, email
and postal addresses.

The electronic version of the "Groupware Yellow Pages" are free, and are
a public service of Consensus Development. I have previously offered to
fax or send a paper edition of the "Groupware Yellow Pages" for free,
however, the number of requests I've had are making this cost prohibitive
(in particular international requests.) I'll try to work out some type of
distribution policy for fax and paper copies of the "Groupware Yellow
Pages" in the next few months.

**********************

MAC GROUPWARE PRODUCTS
Copyright (c)1992 Consensus Development--All Rights Reserved.
Permission is granted to reproduce as long this notice is included.

*Aspects (Version 1.03) Aspects allows up to 16 people to work together
interactively whether they are in the same room or spread around the
world. Members of a work-group can bring documents from their own
Macintosh into the conference, everyone can see those documents on their
screen, anyone can make changes to them, and those changes are
immediately visible to everyone in the conference. Aspects has a complete
set of word processing, drawing, and painting tools built in. COST: $299
for a single user, $895 for 5 user pack. Group Technologies
[phone]; f(703)528-3296 AL:Group.Tech AO:ReidLewis
IN:[e-mail]

*FirstClass (Version 2.0) FirstClass is an integrated email and
conferencing system with a graphical user interface(similar to America
Online or AppleLink.) FirstClass provides threaded conferences, unlimited
attachments, styled text in messages, a powerful search engine, and
gateways to other mail systems such as the Internet, Usenet News, and
CompuServe. FirstClass runs equally well over modem or AppleTalk network,
so employees on the road and customers can keep in touch. Non-Macintosh
users can access via the PC Interface Option. COST: 5 network users $395,
25 users $995, 100 dial-in only users $395, PC Interface Option $295, 4
additional modem ports $595, 4 modem ports with Hurdler card $896.
SoftArc Inc. [phone]; f(416) 754-1856; BBS [phone]
AL:CDA0674 AO:SoftArc IN:[e-mail]

*Inforum (Version 1.0 ) Inforum assists office communications and the
decision making process.Unlike EMail, it facilitates the on-going
communication between members of the office by organizing, streamlining
and documenting the meeting process. With Inforum, people use their
computers to participate in on-going subjects from their desktop. It
enables them to participate when they want to and in the privacy of their
own office. COST: $495 for admin & 5 users, $245 for additional 5 users.
MacVONK USA [phone]; f(215)668-4360 AL:MacVONK.USA
IN:[e-mail]

*In/Out (Version 1.01 ) An electronic in/out board which allows users to
instantly know who is in or out, where they are, when they're returning,
and why they're gone. In/Out can also be used to track the availability
of company vehicles, conference rooms and other company resources. COST:
$299.95/10 user pack, $199.95/5 user pack. CE Software, Inc. (515)
224-1995; f(515)224-4534 AL:CESoftware AO: CESoftware CS:76136,2137
IN:[e-mail] GE:CE.Software MCI:CESoftware

*Instant Update (Version 1.0) Instant Update fills a gap between word
processing and electronic mail. The gap exists because static word
processing files can't keep up with evolving information, and electronic
mail is not built to consolidate replies. Instant Update allows an
exchange of information within the context of a document. Everyone sees
everyone else's additions and changes. It eliminates many of the
time-consuming steps as you struggle to turn fast-changing information
into group decisions and actions. With a live document, you know you've
got the latest version, whether you open it at nine in the morning or
five in the afternoon. COST: $495 per two-user pack and $995 per
five-user pack. ON Technology [phone]; f(617) 876-0391
AL:ON.Marketing AO:OnTech IN:[e-mail]

*Marco Polo (Version 2.0) Marco Polo is a group document management
system for archiving, retrieving and sharing documents. Reduce paper
clutter and manage your documents better. Quickly find and display all
documents relating to a given topic--even if they were created by
different applications. Marco Polo compresses and indexes documents to
facilitate rapid search and retrieval. COST: $395 per user. Mainstay
[phone]; f(818) 991-4587 AL:D0397 CN:Mainstay CS:76004,1525
GE:Mainstay IN:[e-mail] MCI:284-4985

*MarkUp (Version 2.0) MarkUp enables one or more people to simultaneously
comment on a document electronically--even if they don't have the
application that created it. Reviewers make their marks on an overlay on
each page in the document. When they are done, just merge the their
overlays to combine comments. MarkUp provides tools to rewrite,correct,
manage, approve, and annotate documents using text, voice or QuickTime
video, as well as editing tools for free-standing text, pop-up notes,
highlite, strike out, lines, arrows, ovals, rectangles, and polygons, and
proofreaders' marks. COST: $195 per user. AL:D0397 CN:Mainstay
CS:76004,1525 GE:Mainstay IN:[e-mail] MCI:284-4985

*Meeting Maker (Version 1.5 ) Meeting Maker is a network application that
helps you plan, schedule, and confirm meetings without leaving your
computer. You can schedule a time and date, select required guests,
reserve rooms and resources, and prepare agendas with co-workers. If
you're in a hurry, Meeting Maker's Auto-Pick feature will find the first
available time for all required attendees. The Proxy feature allows you
to designate other users to act on your behalf. Calendars can now be
exported to Sharp Wizard, Casio Boss, and HP-95LX personal organizers.
COST: $495 per five-user pack and $895 per ten-user pack. ON Technology
[phone]; f(617) 876-0391 AL:On.Marketing AO:OnTech
IN:[e-mail]

*Now Up-to-Date (Version 1.0.1) Now Up-to-Date is a calendar application
that lets individuals coordinate calendar events with their associates
over the network. Calendars can be moade up of a combination of both
Private & Public (shared) Events. Public events are stored both on the
server and on your Mac so you can access your calendar even when you're
not connected to the network. COST: $99 per user. Now Software (503)
274-2800; f(503)274-0670 AL:NowSoftware
IN:[e-mail]

*PacerForum (Version 1.01) PacerForum is a network conferencing product,
enabling members of a group to easily share ideas and coordinate
activities. As a conferencing tool, PacerForum can be used to plan a
project or to brainstorm on a problem, reducing the need for meetings. As
a bulletin board, it can be used to build and maintain collective lists
or to distribute information and files. COST: $549/5 user pack, $1995/25
user pack. Pacer Software [phone]; f(508)366-1356 AL:Pacer
IN:support@ pacersoft.com

*PersonToPerson (Version 1.0) PersonToPerson mirrors "traditional" office
interactions. You can send voice messages across the network, you can
check an electronic In/Out board, and send 'Post-it Notes' to another
persons screen. You can also tracking appointments, send files, and
electronically chat with other users. Person-to-Person does not require a
file server or network administrator, and when using a PowerBook it will
delay sending of messages until re-connected to a network. COST: $149 for
2 user pack, $399 for 10 user pack, $699 for zone pack Asante
Technologies [phone]; [phone]; f(408)734-4864 AL:D2766 IN:
[e-mail]

..Christopher Allen                  Consensus Development Corporation..
..<[e-mail]>                         4104-24th Street #419..
..                                        San Francisco, CA 94114-3615..
..                                        o415/647-6383  f415/647-6384..
..Mosaic/World-Wide-Web Front Door:                                   ..
..ftp://netcom7.netcom.com/pub/consensus/www/ConsensusFrontDoor.html  ..


UNIX groupware applications
---------------------------
From: [e-mail] (Dan Garfinkel)
Subject: Re: Does groupware exist?
Date: 19 May 92 16:14:15 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA

There is an "application sharing" system available for HP workstations and
X terminals call HP SharedX.  It allows multiple users to interact with X
based applications over wide area networks (including serial lines and ISDN)
as though they were in the same office.  Only the "sender" of the application
need the HP SharedX software, "recievers" only need an X capable display.
A single user liscense lists for $495US with substantial discounts for multi-
user liscenses.

This system has been available for about a year and is in wide use in a few
companies, including within HP.  A good write-up on SharedX (and some other
groupware applications) appears in a special issue of UnixWorld, called
Interoperability 1992, page 33-37 (published in May, I believe).  Other
references on HP SharedX are available from me on request.

----
A groupware spreadsheet called eXclaim! is available for many Unix boxes.
It lets several people edit the same spreadsheet simultaneously, without
stepping on each others' toes.  Please contact [e-mail] for more
info.  (Twin Sun helped implement it, so I'm not unbiased.)

eXclaim!'s groupware features were built using a groupware software
toolkit called COeX, which is intended for use by software developers to
build their own groupware, either from scratch or by ``groupwarizing''
existing applications.  Please contact [e-mail] for more info.

----
Try XTV, which "taps" the connection between the client and the server
and therefore doesn't require source, special libraries, customized
servers, etc.  You'll find it on the R5 contrib-2 tape or it can be
FTP'd from xanth.cs.odu.edu:/wahab/xtv.r2.tar.Z.

: Mark A. Feit, Software Engineer : Internet: [e-mail]          :
: Engineering Research Associates : USENET: ...!uunet!era!feit      :

----
From: [e-mail] (Terry Myerson)
Subject: Re: Experience with Communique from Insoft Inc. ?
Date: 15 Oct 92 15:59:38 GMT
Organization: North Carolina Supercomputing Center

ShowMe is specifically a shared shetckpad application.  Shared X
allows user to share entire X sessions.

I prefer a public domain sketckpad to ShowMe, called Wscrawl.
Wscrawl is written by Brian Wilson of Apple Computer in his
free time.

I have placed binaries and source code for Wscrawl on the
International AVS Center anonymous ftp site :

ftp 128.109.178.23 ( avs.ncsc.org )
anonymous
email
cd pub/wscrawl
ls :

sgi.wscrawl.Z            SGI binary
hp.wscrawl.Z            HP 700 binary
ibm.wscrawl.Z            IBM RS 6000 binary
wscrawl.shar.Z            Source Code
apple.wscrawl.Z            AUX binary
wscrawl_tech_paper.ps.Z        Paper on the sketchpad implementation
sun.wscrawl            Sun binary

Likewise, we prefer a public domain shared X utility called XTV -
I can provide more info on this if someone requests it as well.
XTV runs on many different platforms.  It is developed by
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

----

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Group editor for Suns
Date:   Fri, 5 Feb 1993 02:09:36 PST

There's also a set of tools (group editor, sketch tool, etc.)from Xtel
services of Nottingham.  They're a small company, but I believe their tools
are being used in the MICE project, so they might be available.  Contact
[e-mail]>

Sylvia Wilbur

----

Fri Feb  5 15:40:44 1993
Date:   Fri, 5 Feb 1993 06:15:25 PST
From: Martin Beer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Group editor for Suns

> >I am involved in a project of our psych dept in which the effectiveness of
> >business meetings in face-to-face vs. computer-mediated interaction will be
> >compared. They want to study joint document editing tasks in which all
> >participants can see and change the document, and communicate via a common
> >"talk" window.

> >Which CSCW software can you recommend for this purpose that run on Sun
> >Sparcstations (is it feasible to do it on IPCs)? The program should be
> >easily usable by computer novices.

The Andrew multimedia editor ez provides most of the functionality you require.

You can certainly concurrently edit documents, and there is a talk
feature somewhere.

It is reasonably easy to use, and customised applications can  be built
readily/.

It works well on Sparcstations.

Dr. Martin Beer,
Department of Computer Science,         Telephone [phone]
University of Liverpool,                Fax: [phone]
Chadwick Tower, P.O. Box 147,           EMail [e-mail]
LIVERPOOL.  L69 3BX. United Kingdom.

----

        Also take a look at BBN/Slate from BBN (educational license around
US $100). For further details contact Pam Gazley ([e-mail]).

 J C McCarthy, V C Miles, A F Monk, "An Experimental Study in
Common Ground in Text-based Communication", in Proc. of CHI'91,
ACM Press,pp209-217, New Orleans, 28 Apr-2 May 1991.

Tony Plant                    | BNR Europe Ltd, Harlow, Essex, UK, CM17 9NA
(aka [e-mail])     | Tel : [phone] (ESN 742 2109)

----

Date:   Fri, 5 Feb 1993 07:45:00 PST
From: Paul Dourish <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Group editor for Suns
Organisation: Rank Xerox EuroPARC, Cambridge, UK
Phone: [phone]

ShowMe is a shared paint-style program, rather than allowing text
editing. It provides a feature allowing bitmap images from elsewhere
on the screen to be captured and annotated, but only using paint
facilities.

----

John Bazik: >window-sharing systems for X                       4 Feb 93 16:38
In article <[e-mail]>,
Tom Brinck <[e-mail]> writes:
|>
|> xmx:  Obtain it from wilma.cs.brown.edu

Xmx works with *any* window manager, *any* X client(s) and *any* X server(s).

John

----

Virtual Notebook System
-----------------------
A commercial groupware product is The Virtual Notebook System, sold by
    The ForeFront Group, Inc.
    1709 Dryden, Suite 901
    Houston, TX 77030
    Voice: 713-790-9051
    FAX: [phone]
    EMail: [e-mail]

  VNS runs a server on a Unix (Ultrix, AIX, IRIS, NEWS-OS, SunOS) box,
and clients under Unix with X Windows (DECwindows window manager, NCD's
ncdwm, Solbourne's swm, Sun's OpenWindows, twm, or mwm), MS-DOS +
Windows, and Apple Macintosh.  Data is stored in a database: ndbm,
Sybase SQL Server, or Ingres.


VisionQuest
-----------
From: [e-mail] (Ellen Yu)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Need software for brainstorming and problem solving.
Date: 15 Oct 92 13:40:48 GMT

We use VisionQuest from CTC here at the University of Maryland.  We've used
parts of it in an academic setting and we've used it a lot for decision
making.  I find it to be very flexible.  There are 9 tools and I will try
to briefly describe their capability:

    brainwriting
      provides brainstorming capability.  everyone basically can "talk"
      at the same time by typing in their answers.  A collective group
      list is displayed in realtime.  Part of each participant's screen
      is their "private" area to type and the other part reflects the
      groups answers.
    comment cards
      This tool is similar to brainwriting except that you provide topics
      and then allow the participants to comment on them.  This is a good
      tool for getting feedback on things or gathering opinions.
    subgroup
      This tool allows you to define the number of items you can pick from
      a list.  You define their significance (most important, most significant,
      worst, etc.)
    point allocation
      You define the maximum number of "widgets" that can be allocated and
      the participants allocate those among the given alternatives.  This
      can be used as $ in a budgeting exercise (as an example).
    scoring
      This is a multi-criteria tool.  You define the criteria and weighting
      and then the participants score (the scale is defined by you) based
      on these criteria.  The score is then normalized.
    voting
      This is a yes, no, abstain tool.  You get a count of number of yes,
      number of no, and the number of abstain.
    rating
      The participants rate all alternatives listed in this tool.  You
      set the rating scale and what it signifies.  Group average is
      displayed.
    ranking
      You rank a list by physically moving items around in the list.
    compactor
      You set up categories and each participant puts each alternative
      in the category they feel it belongs in.  You get a frequency count
      of how many people put each item in each category.

This is my attempt to describe the tools (I did not go and dig out the
manual and type what it says in the manual).

One of the most important features of this tool is that all input is ANONYMOUS.

All the input from one tool can be imported (with various filter capabilities)
to another exercise.  All the people I've had use it love the tool.  It
handles the anytime, anyplace scenario although we use it mostly in the
same time, same place scenario.

Yes, there are some things I don't like about it (in regards to the
user interface), but I must say the company has listened to our comments
and are working on changes.  The basic functionality that this tool
provides is great.

It runs in DOS right now (or in a DOS session in Windows).  They are currently
working on a Windows version.

This is a hard tool to try and describe (any groupware tool usually is).
You have to really "experience" it in order to understand how it works.

If you want more information on the product, you can call CTC at
[phone].

No - I do not work for CTC - I'm just a satisfied customer.

I'd be happy to correspond through email in more detail with anyone who has
specific questions about VisionQuest.

Ellen

--
    Ellen Yu, AT&T Teaching Theater         Phone: [phone] office
    Computer Science Center, Univ. of MD           [phone] Fax
    4321 Hartwick Rd., Suite 500            Internet: [e-mail]
    College Park, MD  20740                 Compuserve: 71641,1764


From: [e-mail] (KWLyon)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Group Decision Support Products?
Date: 18 Mar 1994 13:31:05 -0500

[...]

VisionQuest is vended by Collaborative Systems Corp of Austin Texas, phone 800
856 MEET.  This product is simpler and easier to learn than GroupSystems, in my
opinion.  I think of this vendor as the new kid on the block, tho they've been
around now for 4 years or so, under various names.

Ken Lyon, consultant.


Date:         Sun, 22 May 1994 19:00:32 +0200
Reply-To: Group Support Systems <[e-mail]>
From: Jonathan Miller <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: Users of VisionQuest for Windows.
To: Multiple recipients of list GSS-L <[e-mail]>

I have used VQ for Windows abit, but first reactions from some users are that
the DOS versions is much more friendly!

For everyone's info I spoke to Pierre at Intellect, who acquired CTC's assets
about three weeks ago. They appear to be committed to supporting and developing
VQ . Pierre claims that they will have a revamped VQ for Windows available by Ju
ne/July.

The CTC 800 number is now routed to Intellect.

Jonathan Miller
Centre for IS
University of Cape Town


Mac Brainstorming tools
-----------------------
From: [e-mail] (Warren Moseley)
Subject: Re: Need software for brainstorming and problem solving.
Date: 15 Oct 92 21:28:15 GMT
Organization: Texas Instruments

Check out two Macintosh tools.  One is Fair Witness and the other is
Inspiration. I have used both of these tools to capture and display the
results of a JAD.  I used these tools to scribe the JAD, and this allowed
interactive display of the results as we proceeded.  Inspiriation is
excellent for Mind Maps. You can obtain more information about these
tools from the FAX FACTS line at MacWarehouse. I have used them both
successfully, and I am pleased with both.  I dont work for either company.

Any more questions you can contact me at
[e-mail]      214-995-1641

----

Fair Witness is put out by Chena Software, Inc. 905 Harrison Steet
Allentown, Pa. 18103.  215-770-1210.

Inspiration Software, Inc., POB 1629, Portland, OR 97207, USA.
Tel: [phone].

MORE, Euclid, and InControl also fit this category.
See excellent reviews in TidBits. (DSS)

grapeVINE
---------
From: [e-mail] (Prof Cyril Brookes)
Subject: grapeVINE: Request for expressions of interest in research or pilots
Organization: University of New South Wales
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1992 09:47:54 GMT


grapeVINE - A new "value-added" information sharing product for

            Unix, OS/2 and VMS servers on standard LANs with

         Windows, Macs, OS/2 workstations, and email terminals


    Call for Expressions of Interest in Research and Pilot projects.


grapeVINE is the result of a long running research project at the
University of New South Wales in Australia.  It is a new software product
which introduces novel groupware technology to support information
sharing across and within groups, with a focus on "different time,
different place" applications.  After substantial alpha and beta testing
it is now commercially available with a number of sites in Australia,
and one in the US.

grapeVINE is creating some of the first databases of soft information
discussions (ideas, opinions, news, suggestions, forecasts, problems,
etc. plus their assessments) as a by-product of normal business and
government agency professional and executive work.  Research areas we
are starting to canvass using these databases are related to:

     Improving issue escalation and the assessment process of news,
     ideas, opinions, rumors, etc. in an organization

     Linking related soft and hard information, in market intelligence,
     technology awareness, account management, etc.

     Incorporating soft information into EIS

     Understanding the "cultural impact" of introducing information
     sharing tools to different types of organization

     Reducing repeated problem solving through better communication.

University and other groupware research departments may be interested in
installing and evaluating grapeVINE and in working with the results we
will be developing over the next year or two as our customer sites gain
experience.

Research groups may want to compare this technology with others
available, and assess benefits of linking grapeVINE with conventional
conferencing, email and other products. Although we cannot offer the
software free, due to the support needed to make it effective, we do
offer special arrangements to Universities.

We also offer pilot installation opportunities to corporations,
government agencies and consulting groups that want to evaluate the
grapeVINE technology and its relevance to their operations.  This
service includes the necessary consulting to integrate grapeVINE into
their activities and with other products already installed such as
conferencing, email and library systems.  User groups can extend from 50
to several thousand.

Contact me, or Dave Wilkie in Atlanta, at the addresses below if you are
interested in one of these roles, or would like further details. Below
is an overview of grapeVINE.


Cyril Brookes

***********************************************************************


                          grapeVINE - Overview

grapeVINE is able to index, prioritize, selectively disseminate, and
store for retrieval a wide variety of information in text or document
form.  In addition, it supports commenting and other forms of added-
value items such as ideas, opinions and rumors.  A database with multi-
threaded links is created to associate related items.

Users maintain their own interest profiles, using keywords drawn from a
thesaurus that is also the basis of the indexing procedure.  Item
importance is also used as a parameter for profile building and
selective distribution.

The information items that can be automatically "seeded" into grapeVINE
for classification and distribution include news, Internet items,
email messages, questions, rumors, graphics, spreadsheets, CD-ROM
documents, reports and forecasts.  The comments and other items
originating direct from professionals using the system may include
assessments, suggestions and problems.  Delivery, and commenting,
escalation, etc. can be by workstation or electronic mail.

Application of these concepts can be valuable in many executive,
professional and decision support environments including market
intelligence, technology and current affairs awareness, problem
management and project coordination.  Automatic (ie undirected) message
routing is also valuable in large networks.

grapeVINE operates as a client server system on Unix, OS/2, VMS servers,
with Windows, Macs, OS/2 clients across standard networks.  The email
interface allows remote or unskilled users to have access.  A VAX
mainframe version with vt100 terminals, with or without ALL-IN-1,is also
available.

A multi-server capability selectively transfers items between LANS based
on common interests, avoiding the load impact of full replication, and
supports cross server alerting, discussions, and security.


In North America, please contact Dave Wilkie at:
               Office Express Inc.,
               PO Box 80646,
               Atlanta, GA 30366-0646
               Tel/Fax: [phone]
               Email: [e-mail]

In Australia, please contact Cyril Brookes at:
               Institute of Information Techonology, University of NSW
               Level 15, Tower 1
               Bondi Junction Plaza, 2022
               Tel: [phone]
               Fax: [phone]
               Email: [e-mail]

EQUITY
------
EQUITY from ICL.  It is commonly used for a variety of resource allocation
problems in decision conferencing.


Show Business
-------------
From: [e-mail] ("Morel Fourman")
Subject: Show Business: interactive front end to edit/report/display Notes information
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:37:06 GMT

People from COMP.GROUPWARE have asked for information on Show Business
since my posting on EIS and Notes.  Here it is.

SHOW BUSINESS
THE INTERACTIVE FRONT-END FOR REPORTING AND DISPLAY OF LOTUS NOTES BASED
INFORMATION
Show Business lets you build intuitive and powerful front-end
applications to browse, edit, query and analyze Lotus Notes based
information.

Use Show Business to make information easy to use and understand.
Monitor workflow and other information in Lotus Notes and other business
systems including accounting, sales automation, contact management,
databases, spreadsheets and multidimensional models.  Show Business is
the systems integration tool to deliver your client/server Enterprise
Information System (EIS).

INTUITIVE NAVIGATION
The applications which you build in Show Business are easy to use.
Training is often unnecessary.  Users click on icons, chart bars or text
menus to move from screen to screen.
[Picture of screen showing pictures as hot spots]

CLIENT/SERVER
Create client applications which read from and write to Notes databases.
Make textual and numeric information easy to understand and use.
[Picture of screen showing charted information from a single Notes
document, together with fields which can be clicked on to modify the
value of the data in selected Notes document]

DOCUMENT WORKFLOW
Document workflow processes using simple or complex diagrams.
[Flow diagram of workflow]

ANALYZE WORKFLOW
Analyze a sales pipeline by area or view any other workflow profile to
show what is really happening in your business processes.
[Chart showing sales pipeline as workflow status by area]

SLICE AND DICE
Give users a simple intuitive way to answer their own questions -
instantly.  Users can point and click to make ad-hoc queries onto a Notes
database.
[Screen containing above chart with dialog overlaid to allow sales
pipeline to be seen by area, by year, or by project name]

BUSINESS DASHBOARDS
A single screen can contain multiple charts each showing different
business information.
[Dashboard screen showing three different charts each of which shows
another dimension of a business situation]

INSTANT STATISTICS
Choose the right statistic for a cross tabulation table, or let your
users point and click to perform their own analysis.
[Picture of dialog box offering choice of statistics]

DEFINE YOUR OWN CHARTS
Only Show Business lets you define charts graphically and then save them
as style sheets.  Use charts from the Show Business library or design
your own.
[Picture of sophisticated chart combining two line chart series with two
overlay bar chart series - hard to describe, but very useful]

GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS
The Show Business chart library includes many options including the
'bubble chart' used for analysis of marketing information.
[Picture of bubble chart]

PRESENTATION QUALITY
Show Business screens look great, so you can use them for electronic
presentations, print them for overhead transparencies, or copy them for
inclusion in a word processed report.
[Picture of 3d perspective bar chart with graduated background]

DESIGNING FRONT-END APPLICATIONS FOR LOTUS NOTES USING SHOW BUSINESS
With Show Business, you build applications graphically, so they are easy
to prototype, build and maintain - without programming.  It's easy to
make your applications look and feel good to users.  It's also easy to
extend them beyond Notes information to include information from many
sources including spreadsheets, SQL databases and multidimensional
models.  You can even develop your own Dynamic Linked Libraries (DLLs) to
make your Show Business application do just about anything!

AUTHORING - TO DEFINE THE INTERACTIVE STRUCTURE
The Authoring View of Show Business lets you structure the screens in
your application into menus and submenus in a standard outliner. To
change the position of a screen in the menu structure, you just drag and
drop.

Using the Authoring View, you can design a menu structure of twenty or
thirty screens in a few minutes.
[Picture of Authoring View which shows an outline (tree) of miniature
screens from a Show Business application].

DESIGNING SCREENS
The Screen Editor View of Show Business lets you combine charts, text,
annotations, pictures, images and even multimedia.  Charts and text
objects can contain information from Lotus Notes.  Your Show Business
application can even write back changes to a Notes database or add new
documents to it.

Designing screens in the Screen Editor View is as easy as designing
slides using presentation software.
[Picture of Screen Editor View which has a toolbar including chart,
textchart, boxtext, annotation, picture,  box, circle, line and arrow
tools etc.]

BUTTONS - MAKING YOUR APPLICATION INTERACTIVE
Any object in Show Business, from the bar of a chart to a bitmap picture,
can be a button or hot spot.

The Button Setup dialog for an object defines what will happen when the
user clicks on that object.  For example, clicking on a button could
print the current screen, copy it to the clipboard, or move to the next
record of a Notes database and update the current screen.
[Picture of Button Setup dialog which allows user to set navigation
property of object, script for object, etc]

Pricing: Show Business Developer License, version 2.1 $495.

Show Business Software
1 Centerpointe Drive
Suite 210, La Palma
CA 90623, USA
Tel:    [phone]

Show Business Software
73 Collier Street
London N1 9BE
UK
Tel:    [phone]
Fax:    [phone]

Morel Fourman ([e-mail])
Show Business Software




David S. Stodolsky, PhD      Internet: [e-mail]
Inst. of Political Science               Internet: [e-mail]
Univ. of Copenhagen, Rosenborgg. 15            Tel.: + 45 32 97 66 74
DK-1130 Copenhagen K, Denmark                   Fax: + 45 31 59 76 44
Archive-name: comp-groupware-faq/products3
Last-modified: 1994.3.20
Version: 2.0
Copyright: 1994 (c) David S. Stodolsky, PhD


Groupware Products - Part 3
===========================


Business Process Reengineering Tools
------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems
From: Jerome Kreuser OBPIE 32796 <[e-mail]>
Subject: BPR Tools ~#
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 15:33:12 GMT

          We are not a manufacturing company but produce
          intellectual products and financial products.  Most of the tools
          I have seen are discrete simulation tools.  Among these are:


              SIMAN plus ARENA from Systems Modeling Corporation

              SIMSCRIPT products from CACI including
                   SIMPROCESS their BPR product  and
                 MODSIM for more flexibility and detail

              HOCUS from P-E International

              Extend+BPR from Imagine That, Inc.

              ithink from High performance Systems, Inc.

              Micro SAINT from Micro Analysis and Design, Inc.

Newsgroups: comp.infosystems
From: [e-mail] (Jim Babcock)
Subject: Re: BPR Tools ~#
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 16:00:45 GMT



Here are a few more tools used in US ..  I have no evaluation data... sorry.

    Business Design Facility (Texas Instrumants, Dallas  TX)
    Dynamic Business Modeling (Digital Equipment, Bosoton MA))
    QSNAP/SIMPAL  (TEchno Sciences Inc  & Ameritech Greenbelt MD & Hoffman
            Estates, IL))
    SPARKS (Coopers Lybrand, Chicago)
    TASC [Plan, FlowSim, Control, Station], (TASC, Reading MA)
    WITNESS (AT&T, Cleveland OH)

Newsgroups: comp.infosystems
From: Carl Petter Swensson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BPR Tools ~#
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 16:16:36 GMT


Jerome Kreuser OBPIE 32796 <[e-mail]> wrote:

             Are there other useful tools available for BPR?

You should consider RDD-100 from Ascent Logic Corporation, CA, USA. This is
a system engineering tool, but many concepts in Systems Engineering and BPR
are common.

I have used this tool for doing reverse-engineering of software _and_ for modelling
business processes, the latter case was a military organization. In the case of
organizational modelling both reverse-engineering, i.e. figuring out
what people really
are doing, and forward engineering, i.e. what they should do, was done.

It worked well.

It is a comprehensive tool with a its basis in a methodology called
Requirements Driven Development. It has very good support for traceability, dynamic
simulation/verification facilities etc.

Newsgroups: comp.infosystems
From: "Susanne Strahringer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BPR Tools
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 11:29:13 GMT


In SPURR, K., LAYZELL, P., JENNISON, L., RICHARDS, N. (edts.),
Software Assistance for Business Re-engineering, John Wiley 1993,
several tools are described. These include:

APACHE (Electronic Data Systems): proprietary
Business Design Facility (Texas Instruments): commercially available
Business Improvement Facility  (Virtual Software Factory):
commercially available
CADDIE (Logica Cambridge Ltd): research tool for consultancy support
iThink (High Performance Systems): commercially available
PROCESSWISE WORKBENCH (International Computers Ltd, ICL):
commercially available
RADitor (Co-ordination Systems Ltd): commercially available
SES/Workbench (Scientific and Engineering Software): commercially
available
TOP-IX (TOP-IX Ltd): commercially available

Apart from these I came across the following products. All but the first
of the following tools are of german or suisse origin and therefore
probably not available in an English version.

ProcessWeaver (Cap Gemini Innovation)
BONAPART (UBIS GmbH)
ARIS-Tools (IDS Prof. Scheer GmbH)
MOSAIK (sietec consulting GmbH  Co. OHG)
Workflow Analyzer (C.I.T. GmbH)
INCOME (Promatis Informatik GmbH & Co KG)
PACE (Grossenbacher Elektronik AG)
GRADE (Siemens Nixdorf)


Newsgroups: comp.infosystems
From: [e-mail] (Juha-Pekka Tolvanen)
Subject: RE: BPR tools
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 14:20:23 GMT

One tool that can be added to the list of BPR tools is a metaCASE tool
called MetaEdit (MetaCase Consulting Inc.,[e-mail]).

A specific feature of Metaedit is that the modeling methods included can
be customized to different purposes (e.g. to modeling of logistic processes
or to workflow modeling), or even new methods can be created. Current method
support for BPR include value process modeling and activity modeling.

--
Juha-Pekka Tolvanen
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
University of Jyva:skyla:
P.O.Box 35, 40351 Jyva:skyla:, Finland
E-mail: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone], fax: [phone]


Collaborative Multimedia Scientific Design
------------------------------------------
SHASTRA is a X-11 based distributed and collaborative multimedia
environment for cooperative problem solving. Licensed and sold by the
Purdue Research Foundation. For info contact Prof. Chandrajit Bajaj
([e-mail]), 317-494-6531 fax [phone].


Internet conference to Notes database
-------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
From: [e-mail] (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.

We have now been in production for over 6 months now and have many
satisfied customers!

Let me know if you want additional information...

   Joe Jesson,  708-356-6817  [e-mail]

MeetingWorks
------------
Subject: Windows-based GSS
Date: Fri, 20 May 94 15:52:00 PST

MeetingWorks is a Windows-based GSS that has just been released for
commercial use. [..........]  It is currently
designed for small to medium sized groups who meet in a face-to-face
setting.  However, the software does not have a built-in limit on the number
of participants, and the current version could be used along with separate
teleconferencing software.

It is essentially a modular toolkit that can be used to design meetings for
almost any purpose.  It includes tools to support idea generation and
commenting, discussion and organization of ideas, exploration of
relationships (cross-impact analysis), and a variety of evaluation
approaches (voting, selecting, ranking, rating, multi-attribute utility
analysis).    Almost any other Windows or DOS program can be added to a
meeting script, and executed at the appropriate time during the meeting.
 The MeetingWorks modules create a variety of reports, tables, and graphs
which can be distributed during the meeting, and/or used to document the
activities of the group.

Licenses for an unlimited number of participants are $15,000 for commercial
firms, and $10,000 for educational and non-profit organizations.  A
"teaching only" version will be available in the Fall, packaged with a
supplemental text on GSS.  This version will be fully functional, but the
screens and reports will included messages that it is not for any use other
than teaching.

For further information (demo disks and brochures are available), contact me
at:

Dr. L. Floyd Lewis
Decision Science Dept.
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA  98225-9077
[e-mail]

IBIS, gIBIS, CM/1
-----------------
Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.groupware
From: [e-mail] (K.C. Burgess Yakemovic)
Subject: Re: Looking for Designs for Mapping Logical Arguments
Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 14:56:15 GMT

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave Kosiur) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Peter
>Johnson) writes:
>> I'm interested designs for representing information organized around
>> the deconstruction of logical arguments.
>
>Take a look at the IBIS and gIBIS systems.
>.... gIBIS had been a long-term project at MCC
>in Austin. I believe the principals have since started their own business,
>but, for the life of me, I cannot remember the company or product name.

Jeff Conklin was the primary researcher in this work at MCC.  He can be
reached at:

     Corporate Memory Systems
     8920 Business Park Drive
     Austin TX 78759
     phone: [phone]
     fax:   [phone]
     email: [e-mail]

The product name is CM/1.

I am not connected with this company, but I did work with Jeff while he
was at MCC... so I've kept up a bit with his more recent work.

-- kcby
   KC Burgess Yakemovic
   Group Performance Systems Inc.        phone / fax: [phone]
   4776 Village N. Ct.                   email : [e-mail]
   Atlanta GA 30338   USA

k-lendars
---------
From: [e-mail] (Jean-Michel Leon)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.apps,comp.windows.x.motif,comp.groupware
Subject: ANNOUNCING k-lendars: multi-user, multi-calendar diary.
Date: 28 Apr 1994 17:02:41 GMT

DESCRIPTION :
----------
k-lendars is a multi-user / multi-calendar diary.
It is a MOTIF user interface to a distributed calendar manager.
Communications are based on email and require a dispatch mechanism
(procmail, slocal,...)
Anyway if you do not want to use the multi user capabilities, you can use
k-lendars in single-user mode, with one or more calendars.

Features of version 1.1 are:

- multi/calendar support
- multi/user support, with group managment mechanisms
- select/unselect any calendar
- Year view
- Day view
- repeating appointments
- alarms (up to 1 week before an appointment)
- MOTIF 1.2 interface
- mouse oriented interface
- customizability

AVAILABILITY :
-----------

k-lendars sources are freely available, read the  COPYRIGHT file.

ftp location:
    avahi.inria.fr:/pub/k-lendars-1.1.tar.gz
    ftp.x.org:/contrib/k-lendars-1.1.tar.gz
--
[e-mail] - Groupe Bull
<A HREF="http://zenon.inria.fr:8003/koala/koala.html">See the Koala team</A>.


Schedule Publisher
------------------
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
From: hillelm@psun (Hillel Meyers)
Subject: Re: Looking for Schedule Publisher
Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 22:27:21 GMT

Schedule Publisher is from Lucas Managment Systems.  You can contact
Anndee McManus in Detroit at 810-353-4080.

I have no experience with the tool, so I can give no comment.
==
Hillel A. Meyers - Motorola - SMTP:  [e-mail]


Collage for the X Window System
-------------------------------
From: [e-mail] (Gilles Bourhis)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Collage for X release 1.3
Date: 21 Apr 1994 22:00:25 GMT


The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is announcing the 1.3 release
of Collage for the X Window System.

Contacting address: [e-mail]

Quick overview:
Collage is a tool with both scientific data analysis capabilities and
collaboratives capabilities.
Collage can read scientific data from HDF files and produce 2d images
from them, annotate this images, view in a spreadsheet the actual datas,
analyse them with some tools (profiling, histogram, contouring).
Collage can also view images from various file format.
Collage can be viewed also as a collaborative tools since several instances
of collage can be linked together via a server (collage_server),
exchanging message through the DTM protocol: what the end user will see is
that each action of any participant in a Collage session is immediately
propagated to the others, for example there is whiteboard where you can
doodle things: everybody can watch what the other draw of write.

New features in 1.3:
. Full support of int16 (short) HDF type.
. Support of int8 HDF type.
. Backspace works when doodling text in image or whiteboard.
. contour works for all data type.
. animation of a 3d data along an arbitrary axis can be generated from
  the 3d panel.
. Fix bug when the default number of colorcells is less than 256.
. Add options for naming of SDSs (use of annotation or not...).
. Screen capture on SGI works better.
. Delete buttons added so that you can recover some memory.
. Add private copy button on the spreadsheet.

Distribution:
The software is available through anonymous ftp for both binaries and
source code. ftp ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu (141.142.20.50) and answer anonymous
to the Name question. Than cd /UNIX/XCollage/Collage1.3, get DOCS,
quit ftp, read DOCS and download the binaries that you need.
Enjoy !

--
Gilles Bourhis            Software Development Group
[e-mail]        NCSA, U of I at Urbana-Champaign


DEC's LinkWorks
---------------
From: [e-mail] (Randy Arndt)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Is Lotus Notes REALLY groupware????
Date: 1 May 1994 13:23:08 GMT

Philip Leung ([e-mail]) wrote:

: Also, so far, I haven't seen discussions on DEC's LinkWorks.  I do find it
: quite impressive, especially on the document workflow capability.  Any details
: from anyone?

: Philip Leung

LinkWorks is one of the most impressive products that I have seen.  I don't
think that it is even in the same category as Notes.  I recently attended a
conference called Crossroads '94 (Hosted by the company I work for, I must
add) where Digital was one of the main sponsors.  The technology that they
chose to exhibit was Linkworks.

In addition to their exhibit, DEC also brought with them a customer (a
major Canadian bank) who put on a live demonstration of the product.  What
I saw was incredible.  As Philip pointed out, Linkworks does have extremely
robust (yet easy to use) workflow capabilities.  However, that is not the
products only strong suit.  What I was particularly impressed with was the
product allowed developers to create a desktop of functions for users.  I
would liken this to the way Notes lets you build a set of applications in a
folder.  Unlike Notes, however, Linkworks is not a development environment.
All of the applications are created with other products, but they are
collected and organized within the Linkworks desktop.  These don't even
have to be custom applications.  Products like Notes and Word are just as
easily integrated into the desktop as custom applications.

Another interesting feature is the portability of a user's desktop.  As
with Notes, Linkworks provides a custom desktop for each user.  This
desktop is also extremely portable.  In the demonstration that I saw a
remote user dialed into the home LAN and received the same desktop that he
would have received if he had been physically located on the LAN.  In fact,
for all intents and purposes he was on the LAN even though he was over
3,000 miles away.  What was even more interesting was that the process is
intelligent.  Developers can limit access to certain resources on the LAN
(such as multimedia apps that would be too slow over phone lines or high
security applications) for remote users.

I am not often excited about groupware, but I consider this product quite
good.  It is an extremely young product, but I think it has a definite
future in enterprisewide workflow.  If anyone would like more information
on Linkworks let me know and I will tell you who to get in touch with at
DEC.

Randy Arndt
Open Systems Advisors


From: [e-mail] (Thomas Fee)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Lotus Notes .... LinkWorks
Date: 1 May 1994 09:22:04 -0700

I saw the DEC demo of LinkWorks two days ago and I agree it looks very
interesting.  It would be useful if we could come up with a succinct
characterization of these products so that when we talk about them we don't
make emotional speeches about with evocative visions.

I don't know much about LinkWorks but here is a start:

    LinkWorks is version control system with content
    routing cabability.  Routes are generally pre-defined
    but can optionally be ad-hoc.  A GUI presentation
    allows moderately powerful interactions with the
    system.  There is no API nor scripting capability
    and so, generally, administration and extensiblity
    is primitive or limited.  The system has some knowledge
    regarding the file-types under its control and the
    programs associated with these types.

This may or may not be accurate.  Any comments?

--------
Thomas Fee <[e-mail]>
Greater Vancouver Regional District, IT Architect/Planner
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada


Workflow Management
-------------------
From: [e-mail] (Andrew Stuart)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Need product-infos on Workflow Management
Date: 6 May 1994 13:13:44 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]

Which tool you use depends on your aplication, but some of the tools are
Lotus Notes, Action Workflow, Staffware, Teamlinks, Delrina Formflow,
Jetform, Wordperfect Informs and many others.  The US edition of PC magazine
reviewed Workgrouping packages in their June 93 issue.

For pure workflow, there isnm't alot out there at the moment.  Look closely
at Action Workflow in conjunction with Lotus Notes, or use its SQL connectivity.

It can be a good idea just to build your application using traditional tools such
as Power or visual basic, but the use the add in libraries for Lotus Notes
for each product to enhance their workgrouping abilities.
Andrew

From: [e-mail] (Michael Alexander)
Date: Sun, 22 May 94 00:09:02 CST
Subject: Re: Need product-infos on Workflow Management
Newsgroups: comp.groupware

In article <2qdfq8$jh59offas_dike.sbil.co.uk> as999999raver.sbil.co.uk writes:

\deletionsp
> For pure workflow, there isnm't alot out there at the moment.  Look closely
> at Action Workflow in conjunction with Lotus Notes, or use its SQL
> connectivity.

There's good news; IBM Corp. has just announced the availability of FlowMark,
an industry-strength workflow manager.

FlowMark is a fully object-oriented client/server application with
functionality to do everything from graphically designing processes to
animating and operating them.

Persons involved in a FlowMark process see their assigned activities on their
personalized work lists on their workstation. When they perform activities
from the work list they are guided by appropriate help information, and
supported by seamless invocation of the necessary programs.

FlowMark is prepared to run with Lotus Notes, can be a front-end to 3270-
based host applications and work with IBM VisualInfo for image based
workflow, among others. It can be tailored for workflow management in
a variety of industries. Applications areas also include business process
documentation/improvement/re-engineering, ISO 9000 certification/Baldridge
and application integration.

For information contact your local IBM representative/office and ask for
FlowMark/workgroup. If you need info on services around FlowMark or want
to provide them you can drop me a note.

Best Regards,

Michael F.Alexander
[e-mail]


Electronic Forms
----------------
From: [e-mail] (ABU ABRAHAMS)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Info on Electronic Forms please.
Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 09:12:37

  The following references to packages were made.

    References:
        1.  Staffware: a robust workflow application from a British
            company with over 30,000 seats installed around the world.
             in London:   [phone]
        2.  AT&T ProcessIT: a new workflow product, backed by AT&T, and they
            also remarket DelRina's FormFlow software.
             Seems to require AT&T Unix.  Contact AT&T.
        3.  InConcert from XEROX.  A good looking  workflow application
            running on Windows or Unix clients, and Unix servers.
            In Palo Alto, CA: 415-424-0111 or 800-626-6775.
        4>  Reach Software Corporation has a package out  It's an e-mail
            based workflow manager, with a forms generation package included,
            and graphical workflow  design, for an all-PC environment.
        5>  Word Perfect INFORMS -Professional form handling,Network ready,
                                   Email enabled.

 //          //..\\                [e-mail]
       ====UU====UU=               CSIR - S.A


Natural Language Processing Based Group Decision Support
--------------------------------------------------------
From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
Newsgroups: comp.groupware,comp.infosystems
Subject: Re: groupware + infosystems: any thoughts?
Date: 6 May 1994 16:33:37 GMT

    I developed a brainstorming program which enables participants to query
data and knowledge bases via English sentences.  The system then posts the
answers in the comment stream.   Studies have shown replies are faster and
more accurate than if a human searched for the answers.  Also, some
participants believed this "intelligent agent" was actually a human posting
the answers.

     For more information:
  1.   "Knowledge-based Information Retrieval for Group Decision Support
        Systems," M. Aiken & C. Govindarajulu, Journal of Database
        Management, 5(1) Winter 1994, 31-35.
   2.   "A Natural Language Processing Based Group Decision Support
        System," S. Conlon, B. Reithel, M. Aiken, & A. Shirani,
        Decision Support Systems, in press.

--- Milam Aiken
    Univ of Mississippi


ConversationBuilder
-------------------
Date: 7 Feb 92 02:51:08 GMT

We're pleased to announce the first release of the ConversationBuilder
environment, a tool we've been building for `active'support of collaborative
work.  A copy of the release announcement is enclosed.  If you would be
interested in obtaining a copy of the system, or discussing the system or
related issues, please dont hesitate to contact me.

regards,

Simon Kaplan



                             Release Announcement

                          ConversationBuilder v 2.0
           An open environment for "collaborative process support"


                          ConversationBuilder Group
                    Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
                  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

                        For more information, contact:

                                 Simon Kaplan
                    Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
                  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
                         1304 W. Springfield Avenue,
                                    Urbana
                                  IL 61801,
                                     USA

                          email: [e-mail]
                          fax:   [phone]
                          phone: [phone]

0.  Brief Summary

ConversationBuilder (CB) is an "open architecture" for the construction of
collaborative systems.  Rather than providing specific collaboration
models, it provides a family of mechanisms which can be used to construct
specific collaboration models (which we call protocols).  We have used CB
to define several protocols, including:

-       A simple IBIS model
-       A Negotiation model, based on CHAOS, which in turn is based on
        Coordinator
-       Code Inspection support
-       Software Process support
-       Collaborative document and code development support
-       A host of smaller auxiliary protocols which are used in many of the
        others.

Some of these protocols are quite robust and in daily use; others are
experimental.  Some were developed purely as demos; still other protocols are
under development.

The CB release includes several tools which can be used in a collaborative
environment, or independently, including the CB server, Message Bus for tool
interconnection, Widget Server for controlling and building user interfaces,
Graph browser for hypertext browsing, and Epoch editor for text display and
editing.  Other tools, such as a shared drawing tool, will be released in the
near future.  The CB system has been designed to be open, so that other tools
can be integrated with relative ease.  (Brief descriptions of all these tools
are included at the end of this document).

The "products" of our research cover a wide spectrum of interests, including

-       collaborative work (groupware?) systems
-       hypertext systems
-       tools for tool UI integration (widget server);  allowing multiple
        tools to cooperatively and dynamically build and share a common
        user interface
-       support for  inter-tool communication; an
        extension of the message server concept in field and softbench.
-       some work in the area of active-object persistent object storage.
-       multi-window, multifont text editors (epoch)

Portions of CB could be of interest to people in any of these communities;
we expect the system as a whole will be of interest to people in the CSCW,
groupware, hypertext, (software) process modeling and related areas.

CB is actually used at Illinois by our group to maintain itself as well as for
other activities such as writing papers (i.e supporting the "real work" of
research groups :-).

1.  System Requirements

We have tried to ensure that the CB system runs on as many variants of Un*x as
possible.  It is run regularly on Sun, HP and NeXT; it has been run on IBM
RS/6000's and 386 and 486 boxes under SysV/3.2 also.  It would (probably) run
under SYSV.4 if you could find an appropriate Common Lisp.

CB runs using a client-server model.  The server is written in CLOS, and needs
a fairly substantial machine (a sparc I+ with enough memory (> 24 meg if this
is the only application on it) should be ok.  The clients (user interface
clients) are all written in C and are fairly small.  A 16meg machine should be
more than adequate for the user interface part.

The components, and their requirements are listed below:

CB Server       Comon Lisp with CLOS to at least PCL Mayday Rev 4b (ie
                latest version)

                Any version of Allegro CL from 3.1 seems to be OK
                (4.0 or better is preferred as it includes a native
                CLOS).

                AKCL and CMU Common Lisp with the latest PCL seem OK

                Lucid lisp is almost certainly OK, but we dont have it, so we
                havent tried it.  I'd expect it would work with the usual minor
                porting hack problems.


Graph Browser   X11R4 or newer, Motif 1.1

Widget Server   X11R4 or newer, Motif 1.1

Message Bus     C

Epoch           4.0 or newer, depends on C and  X11R4 (actually epoch will
                work on X11R3, but as the rest of the system doesnt, this is
                moot).

Space requirements for a complete installation will be at least 60 meg.
(including epoch).  Most of this can be cleaned away after installation, down
to around 20 meg.  Thereafter your usage will grow as the CB database gets
bigger.


2.      Getting CB

Some portions of CB are freely available: Epoch (under GNU license) and the
message bus and widget server (under X11-type license).

The CB server itself, which is needed for exploitation of the collaboration,
hypertext and persistent storage features of CB, is distributed under a more
restrictive license and is only available to members of the ConverationBuilder
consortium.  Membership in the consortium is free for Universities.  Other
organizations should contact Simon Kaplan for information.

Once you've joined the consortium and signed the CB license agreement,
we'll give you a login so that you can FTP the restricted parts of the CB
system.  The unrestricted parts will be available from your login as well,
but will also be available for anonymous FTP from cs.uiuc.edu.  For those who
do not have ftp access, we can arrange to send a tape (streamer, reel or
exabyte).

To obtain more information about joining the ConversationBuilder consortium
contact Simon Kaplan

3.  Here is a very brief capsule of the functionality of the major CB
    components:

CB Engine:  Provides collaboration control, access control, hypertext
        and persistent object storage facilities.

Message Bus:  Allows tools to interconnect and send messages to each other.
        can be used independently of all the other tools;  arbitrary new
        tools can be connected to it and communicate assuming they "speak"
        the message bus syntax.

Widget Server:  Builds user interfaces in response to UI expressions sent over
        the message bus.  Can be used in applications other than CB, with
        the message bus.  Provides a high-level way of describing and
        evolving user interfaces as applications run.  The widget server
        can callback to applications using the message bus in response
        to user input events.

Graph Browser:  Displays arbitrary graphs sent to it over the message bus.
        supports callback to other applications over the bus.

Epoch: Emacs extended to be "better integrated" into X11.  Supports
        multiple X windows, colors, proportional fonts, read-only regions,
        zones (buttons in buffers, including graphical buttons).  Can be
        used independently of any other CB component (and often is).


David S. Stodolsky, PhD      Internet: [e-mail]
Inst. of Political Science               Internet: [e-mail]
Univ. of Copenhagen, Rosenborgg. 15            Tel.: + 45 32 97 66 74
DK-1130 Copenhagen K, Denmark                   Fax: + 45 31 59 76 44