Collaborative and Enterprise Wide Computing
Eric S Fraga, Dept of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, UCL,
e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk
1997 April 15
Engineering design is often undertaken as a team project. At the same time, engineers expect or would prefer to use the computer on their desk for most, if not all, of the required tasks. However, even when available on a desktop system, most computer tools are oriented towards a single user and do not easily fit in to team based work practices. This paper presents some of the existing and emerging tools for collaborative work using computers. Based on Internet technologies, these tools can be made available throughout an organization and can be used on a wide variety of computers. Through the use of new data access methods, users can also manipulate and access data on remote computers interactively. An organization can standardize on a set of programs without limiting the individual user's hardware or software requirements.