Practical Internet Groupware

Author: Jon Udell
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: Standard Internet applications (Email, news, and Web) package more groupware capabilities than most people realize. This book will show you how to make them work effectively, combine them in new ways, and further extend them with the help of other Internet technologies (including CSS, LDAP, XML, HTML information, and Web client-side scripting). Collaboration is a timeless theme. Whether in academia or in today's busy network portals, the Internet is always helping people communicate better and work more collaboratively. However, building effective online communities is often not as simple as it seems. What tools and technologies can people truly leverage? Why are some reluctant to share information? How can you encourage them to overcome this mindset? How can the Email and news models of information be combined with Web publishing and programming to create unique collaborative spaces?
In 1995, Jon Udell became the network administrator and columnist for the BYTE magazine. He quickly found himself managing an online community and an online publishing platform. The site started as a document repository but soon evolved into a suite of Internet and Internet-based groupware applications, tightly connecting editors, authors, readers, and merchants. Practical Internet Groupware details the author's experience in this area. This book will show you how to build and install various groupware applications. You will learn how to:
- Build groupware on standard Internet technologies.
- Use server-side and client-side scripting to create, publish, distribute, and search electronic documents.
- Build and manage document sets, with storage formats such as HTML, XML, and the fundamental material of groupware: semi-structured data.
- Work with groups ranging from 2 to 3 million people, whether inside a firewall, outside it, or across it.
Overall, the Internet is a successful example of the world's largest groupware. The book explains how to leverage the inherent groupware capabilities of the Internet to connect people with people and people with information on your own Web site and the Internet.