The availability of open and portable standards for dissemination of information and execution of programs provides the basis for collaborative computing throughout an enterprise or organization. Users (engineers, managers, administration staff, public relations officers) can each use the computers they are most comfortable with without losing the capability of accessing information or the ability to run specific programs. With special systems based on these open standards, such as the BSCW Web server enhancements and toolkits such as the Java Collaborator Toolkit, computers provide an environment suitable for team-based work and one which is not tied to any particular architecture or operating system. The result is a flexible and hopefully more effective environment for process engineering.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the United Kingdom and of E I du Pont de Nemours and Company.