mit-542 ระบบสารสนเทศเพื่อการจ ัดการ information...

19/06/52 Chapter 4 1Chapter 4 1

Chapter 4: Network Computing

for Collaboration

Information Technology For Management 6th Edition, Turban, Leidner, McLean, WetherbeModified from Lecture Slides by L. Beaubien, Providence College

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

MIT-542 ระบบสารสนเทศเพือ่การจัดการInformation Systems for Management (ISM)

Walailuk University


Learning Objectives Discuss the characteristics and standards of network computing

Explain the benefits of interoperability and converged networks

Describe the role of intranet/extranet portals and how they support SCM

Understand the role of discovery, communication, and collaboration capabilities for organizations

Describe how new communication technologies are replacing or filling the gaps left by conventional technologies

Describe how IT-based collaboration and communication support group work and decision making

Describe fundamental principals/capabilities of group work technologies

Evaluate the managerial, social, and ethical issues related to the use of

network computing, messaging, and collaboration.


Case


Network Computing Infrastructure


Network Computing (Overview & Drivers)

Various information services have functioned independently of each others. data and documents

Voice and video

Traditionally they were transmitted using different protocols and carried on different networks.

Multiple networks were needed because of the lack of interoperability or connectivity between devices.

Problem stemming from the lack of interoperability include limited access to information and computing and communications resources.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 6

Evolution - Network ComputingInternetInternet


Data Transmission (I) To prepare data and documents for transmission, they are

converted into digital packets based on the Internet Protocol (IP) and sent via computer networks or LANs.

Packets are transmitted using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which provides a reliable, connection-oriented method of packet delivery.

This combination of protocols in referred to as the TCP/IP model.

Voice is sent as analog signals over circuits on telephone (circuit-switched) networks.


Data Transmission (II) Video steams are compressed and sent as IP packets using the

User Diagram Protocol (UDP).

This combination of protocols is referred to as UDP/IP model.

UDP provides no error recovery services, but also does not have the overhead that a connection-oriented protocol like TCP.

Perfection is sacrificed for efficiency.

Compared to TCP, UDP send packets much faster and more efficiency, but is less reliable because it does not check packets for errors.


Data Transmission (III) Today, data, voice, and video networks are

converging into a single network based on packet (such as IP and VoIP) technology.

The convergence is at various stages of maturity and far from complete.

For example, watching steamed TV on mobile phones has been a frustrating experience.

The viewing experience is compromised by the small size of the phone’s screen.

The quality improves as the technology matures.19/06/52 Chapter 4 10Chapter 4 10

Networks, Protocols, and Transfer Methods of IS

Information Service

Network Format Protocol Transfer Method

Data and documents

Packet Converted to packets based on Internet Protocol (IP)

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

Each packet can take a different route to the destination. Resent if needed

Voice Circuit Sent as analog signals. Traffic between telephone offices is digital

Each call creates a circuit that reserves a channel between two parties.

Video streams

Packet Compressed and converted to IP packets

UCP (User Datagram Protocol)

No checking for missing packets. Simply dropped


Packet Technologies Packet technologies convert voice, video, and data into packets that can be

transmitted together over a single, high-speed network.

Therefore, there is no need for separate networks.

High-speed networks can be wireline, wireless, or both.

These networks are more commonly called broadband, which comes from the words broad bandwidth.

During all information services are handled the same way by one high-speed packet network using either wireline or wireless, the technical barriers to collaborative work are eliminated.

Then it is no longer difficult to use multimedia applications simultaneously because the network would not restrict the kinds of computing devices that could be used.

For example, users could access the company network from home through a desktop computer and wireline secure access through converged networks, exciting new forms of business communication and collaboration using multimedia applications and digital devices become possible.


Converged Networks The Internet revolution was characterized by two opposing

forces; Chaos vs. Convergence.

Chao stemmed from existing and emerging technologies that were not interoperable. The business communications industry, which is still fragmented.

Collaboration tools have relied heavily on proprietary protocols and standalone products that severely limited interoperability with other systems and tools

A converged network is powerful new architecture that enables the enterprise-wide convergence and integration of voice, data, video and other communication applications. B2B, B2C, Global System for Mobile Communication System (GSM)

GSM: an internationally accepted standard for digital cellular communication originating in Europe.


Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) With converged networks, management of their interface

becomes a key factor.

Users need easy and intuitive access to the network from any device, anywhere, any time, seamlessly.

Protocol/Industry standard: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

SIP standardizes the signaling of calls or communications between different types of devices/end-points from different vendors such as IP phones, instant messaging (IM) clients, soft phones, smart phones, and so on.

In effect, SIP integrates voices, video, and data to make management of communications possible. The benefits of SIP is that multiple users can join an online meeting with

simultaneous voice and data interaction and be talking, sharing users’locations. 19/06/52 Chapter 4 14Chapter 4 14

Internet and WWW Many people believe that the Web is synonymous with the

Internet, not no.

The Internet functions as the transport mechanism, and the Web (WWW or W3) is an application on those transport functions.

Other applications also run on the Internet Email

Telnet

File Transfer

The web is a system with universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information via client/server architecture.

The web has simple UI to handle all types of digital information, including text, hypermedia, graphics, and sound.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 15

The Network Computing Infrastructure

Intranet: a network designed to serve the internal informational needs of a company, using Internet concepts and tools. Browsing and Search capabilities. Support communication and collaboration.

Extranet: An extranet is an infrastructure that allows secure communications (connects the intranets of different organizations) among business partners over the Internet. Enables business-to-business (B2B) transactions Provides an interface to exchange of business forms

In addition to the Internet and the Web there are two other major infrastructures of network computing: the intranet and the extranet


Local Area Network (LAN) LAN consists of the following components:

LAN file server is a repository of various software and data files for the network

Nodes are the client machines on the LAN

Wired or wireless communication media that connects the devices

LAN network interface card (NIC) is a special adapter that links an individual device to the communication medium and specifies: The rate of data transmission;

The size of the message units;

Addressing information attached to each message

The network topology

Network operating system (NOS) manages the server and routes andmanages communications on the network.


Wide Area Network (WAN) Wide area networks (WANs) are networks that cover

large geographic areas.

WANs typically connect multiple LANs

WANs have large capacity and combine multiple channels (fiber optic, satellite, microwave, etc.)

WANs are provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies (Sprint, AT&T, etc.)

Value-added network (VAN) are private, data-only networks managed by outside third-parties that provide these networks to multiple organizations.


Going Wireless Wifi - simple wireless networks

Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) is used to connect laptops, PCs, and handhelds to the Internet.

Wi-Fi hotspots are found in restaurants, coffee shops, and hotels. The technology also is used in hospital, university, and corporate

settings to connect cabled networks in different buildings.

WLAN - expanding the wireless connection A type of local-area network that uses high-frequency radio waves

rather than wires to communicate between computers or devices such as printers, which are referred to as nodes on the network.

WiMax - Long-range wireless Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, popularly known

as WiMax, is the name for IEEE standard 802.16 Wireless access range of up to 31 miles; Data transfer rate of 75

Mbps; Secure system that offers voice and video.


Network Topologies & Enterprise Network Network Topologies

Star, all network nodes connect to a single computer, typically file server

Bus, all network nodes connect to the bus, which is a single communications channel, such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable

Ring, network nodes are connected to adjacent nodes to form a closedloop

Enterprise Networking Enterprise network is an organization’s interconnected network of

multiple LANs and also can include multiple WANs

Backbone networks are corporate high-speed central networks to which multiple smaller networks such as LANs called embedded LANs and smaller WANs connect.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 20

Internet Application Categories Discovery: Discovery involves browsing and information retrieval. Communication: The Internet provides fast and inexpensive

communication channels that range from messages posted on online bulletin boards to complex information exchanges among many organizations.

Collaboration: Due to improved communication, electronic collaboration between individuals and/or groups ranging from screen sharing and teleconferencing to group support systems.

The Net is also used for: Education Entertainment: People can access the content of newspapers,

magazines, and books. Correspond with friends and family, play games, listen to music, view movies and other cultural events.

Work: They can download documents, do research.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 21

Discovery – Internet Application

Internet Software Agents Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Agents Search Engines and Intelligent Indexing Agent

Internet-Based Web Mining Social Network Toolbars, e.g., Google Toolbars Foreign Language Processing, e.g., world.altavista.com Information and Corporate Portals

Through the discovery capability users can access information located in databases all over the world. It facilitates education, government services, entertainment, and commerce. Discovery is done by browsing and searching static or dynamic data sources on the Web.


Finding Information

19/06/52 Chapter 4 23

Information & Corporate Portals

Commercial (public) portals offer content for diverse communities and are the most popular portals on the Internet. Examples are: yahoo.com lycos.com msn.com

Publishing portals are intended for communities with specific interests. Examples are: techweb.com zdnet.com

A portal is a Web-based personalized gateway to information and knowledge in network computing. It attempts to address information overload by providing one screen from which we do all our work on the Web. Thus eliminating retrieval time spent on integrating disparate IT systems.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 24

Information & Corporate Portals (I) A challenge facing organizations is information overload because of

the growing use of intranets. Information is scattered across numerous documents, e-mail

messages, and databases at different locations and systems. Accessing relevant, accurate, and complete information can be time

consuming and require access to multiple systems. To avoid losing a lot of productive employee time, companies use

portals. A portal is a Web-based personalized gateway to information and

knowledge in network computing. It attempts to minimize information overload through an intranet-

based environment to search and access information from disparate IT systems and the Internet using advanced search and indexing techniques.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 25

Information & Corporate Portals (II) The portal was introduced in 1997 when several Internet search

engines and directories began offering free e-mail accounts, stock quotes, news, and other Web Services to their sites to become jumping-off points for Web surfers.

Since then portals have grown immensely.

People within an organization can work with Internet tools and procedures through enterprise information portals.

Specific applications can include important internal documents and procedures, corporate address lists, e-mail, tool access, and software distribution.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 26

Seven Portal Types (I) Corporate (enterprise) portals

Gateway to corporate web sites that enable communication, collaboration, and access to company information.

A corporate portal is a personalized, single point of access through a Web browser to critical business information located inside and outside of an organization.

Corporate portals provide a single point of access to information and applications available on the Internet, intranets, and extranets of a specific organization.

Many large organizations have already implemented corporate portals to cut costs, free up time for busy executives/managers, and improve profitability.

Commercial portals Such as Yahoo, MSN, sanook.com, kapook.com

Decision portals Provide team members with models they can use to evaluate decision criteria,

objectives, and alternatives from their desktops

19/06/52 Chapter 4 27

Seven Portal Types (II) Publishing portals

Intended for communities with specific interests. Relatively little customization of content, but provide extensive online search

in a specific area, such as techweb.com and zdnet.com Mobile portals

Portals that can be accessed from mobile devices, such as NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode portal in Japan (more than 42 million subscribers)

Voice portals Web portals with audio interfaces, accessible via a standard cell phone. Using advanced speech recognition and text-to-speech techniques, voice

portals allow users to retrieve e-mail, credit card data, flight information, etc. Vertical portals

Also called vortals, target specific market. Vortals usually offer relevant news headlines, industry event calendars, links

to related sites, and lists of vendors. Example: pharmaceuticalonline.com and bakeryonline.com

19/06/52 Chapter 4 28

Integration of Portals Many organizations are creating several corporate portals. While in some cases these portals are completely independent of

each other, in other cases they are interrelated. For example, they may share content, and they may draw from

the same applications and databases. Tool-building software, such as WebSphere Portal (from IBM),

allows companies to create multiple portals as one unit. It enables three different portals to be used by a single company,

a portal for business partners (B2B), a portal for employees (B2E), and a portal for customers (B2C).

19/06/52 Chapter 4 29

Communication

Electronic Mail Web-Based Call Centers Electronic Chat Rooms Voice Communication Weblogging (Blogging)

People exchange and share information by sending and receiving messages, documents, forms and files. This information-processing supports the organization and the transaction of business. Communications can involve one or several IT-supported media, such as text, voice, graphics, radio, pictures, and animation. Using different media increases the effectiveness of a message, expedites learning, and enhances problem solving.


Framework for IT support of Communication

19/06/52 Chapter 4 31

Blogs Blogs started out as Internet journaling and personal publishing

tools, but enterprises now use these systems to replace e-mail and support collaborative work.

Blogs are simple to build due to user-friendly programs from blogger.com, blogspot.com, pitas.com.

Blog servers require far fewer dedicated resources than an enterprise intranet.

Using blog platforms can free up IT hardware and support resources for other uses to lower support costs and license fees for systems that may no longer serve the needs of users.

Blogs have become one of the fastest growing enterprise solutions as businesses recognize that the ability to easily find information contained within enterprise blogs critical to improve worker productivity.

Web 2.0

19/06/52 Chapter 4 32

Wiki Wikis are a user-driven response to the shortcomings of search

engines. Technically, a wiki is server software that allows users to freely

create and edit Web page content. This is possible because wikis support hyperlinks and have simple

text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages.

The wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

The immensely content-rich. Multilingual Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) collects knowledge by consensus.

Wiki Web pages are created through the collaboration efforts of numerous contributors.

The relevance of these efforts is often better than that of algorithmically ranked lists of each search results.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 33

Wikilog Wiki comes in many shapes and formats, one of which is wikilog. A wikilog (or wikilblog) is an extension of a blog. A blog usually is created by an individual (or may be a small group)

and may have a discussion board. A wikilog is essentially a blog that allows everyone to participate as

a peer (a combination of wikis and blogs, also known as bliki) Anyone may add, delete, or change content. It is like a looseleaf notebook with a pencil and eraser left in a public

place. Anyone can read it, scrawl notes, tear out a page, and so on. Unlike protected Web pages, articles added to a wiki are at the

editorial mercy of the wiki’s other participants.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 34

Wiki – Commercial Aspects

Being a relatively new technology, it is difficult to assess the commercial potential of wikis.

However, research firm Gartner Group predicts that wikis will become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50 percent of companies by 2009.

In addition to collaboration, wikis can replace e-mail, since using wiki is an open source, spam-free communication tool.

For example, Angel.com, a subsidiary of MicroStrategy Inc., develops integrated voice response (IVR) and call center automation software.

The company uses wikis as a central communications tool for its sales teams.

They use a wiki to log daily lead counts, post partnership information, and read documents posted by product management and marketing.

The wiki is used to publish position papers, marketing material, messaging, and scripts for customer inquiries.

It is shared with customers and helps the team cope with a 14-hour time difference with an Australian client.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 35

File-Sharing - BitTorrent There are basically two ways users can get files from one computer to another

over the Internet. Client/Server

To connect directly to a server holding files and download from there. Good for files that are neither huge nor in high-demand. If very large files (e.g., online video) or numerous people downloading at

once, the process slows significantly or the server may be crash. BitTorrents.

BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring or sharing files. BitTorrents were designed to handle huge files. Similar to peer-to-peer (P2P) with users connecting to each other directly

to send and receive portions of the file. Unlike P2P, it has a central server called a tracker that coordinates the

action of all the peers. The tracker only manages connections and does not have any knowledge

of the contents of the files being distributed, With this architecture, BitTorrent can distribute large files to a wide

audience without the high costs of servers and bandwidth resources.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 36

Podcasting Podcasting is a way to distribute or receive audio and, more recently, video

files called pods or podcasts over the Internet. The term pod came about from Apple’s iPod digital player, although an iPod

is not needed to hear or view a podcast. Pods can be downloaded or streamed from a Web site. Authors called podcasters create a pod by making a file such as an MP3

audio file available on the Internet. This can be done by posting the file on a Web server or BitTorrent tracker,

which is a server used in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol.

Many content providers offer podcast feeds at no cost. These feeds deliver audio broadcasts to a computer, which can be listened

to using iTunes. They can be loaded onto an MP3 player or iPod. To automate notice and delivery of new content, iTunes use RSS to auto-

download new podcasts as they become available.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 37

RSS RSS refers to various standards of Web feed formats, usually Really Simple

Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary etc. RSSs automate the delivery of Internet content. They are an easy way to receive newly released information customized to

a person’s interests and needs. Web feeds provided through RSS offer headlines, summaries, and links

from sites in an XML file that can be viewed using software called a reader (newsreader) or aggregator that brings the information directly to a computer or iPod.

RSS readers are software that monitors blogs or sites for new content. With RSS and a newsreader, whenever there is new content, it is delivered

and shows up automatically on the newsreader. RSS feeds dramatically cut down on the time it takes to search for

information online and you can then go back for greater detail after finding out first what is available.

Thairath, Dailynews, NorSorPor, etc. provide RSS.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 38

XML and XBRL Another valuable format for locating and sharing information is eXtensible

Markup Language (XML). XML is a meta language for describing markup languages for documents

containing structured information. XML-based systems facilitate data sharing across different systems and

particularly systems connected via the Internet. Actually, RSS is a form of XML. RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification, as published on the

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web site. The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a version of XML

for capturing financial information throughout a business’s information processes.

XBRL makes it possible to format reports that need to be distributed to shareholders, banks, and other parties.

The goal of XBRL is to make the analysis and exchange of corporate inforamtion more reliable (trustworthy) and easier to facilitate.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 39

Mobile Communication The primary business benefit of mobile communications is keeping

workers connected. In a Baseline survey of 143 IT executives, 81 percent of

respondents cited better communication and collaboration among employees as the key advantage of providing mobile hardware and software, followed by 69 percent who said increased responsiveness to customers was the core benefit.

These and other factors are driving enterprises to budget more for mobile computing projects, which encompass everything from wireless e-mail devices to special-purpose software for salespeople using laptops.

The average business expected to increase mobile computing spending from 1 to 4 percent in 2006, according to Baseline’s survey, which was conducted in March 2006.

And the larger companies with over 1,000 employees, the median expected increase was 5 to 14 percent over the $250,000 to $500,000 that was spent in 2005 (Gler, 2006)

19/06/52 Chapter 4 40

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) – I

CDMA is a spread-spectrum (wide-band) technology created by the US company Qualcomm.

Spread-spectrum radio communication has been used by the military because it insists jamming and is hard to intercept.

CDMA allows many users to occupy the same time and frequency allocations in a given band.

The CDMA air interface is used in both 2G and 3G networks.

CDMA is the foundation for 3G services.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 41

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) – II

Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method utilized by various radio communication technologies.

It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards calledcdmaOne and CDMA2000 (often referred to as simply "CDMA"), which use CDMA as an underlying channel access method.

One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing several transmitters to send information simultaneouslyover a single communication channel.

This allows several users to share a bandwidth of frequencies. This concept is called multiplexing. CDMA employs spread-

spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA19/06/52 Chapter 4 42

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) – III

By contrast, time division multiple access (TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency.

CDMA is a form of "spread-spectrum" signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated.

An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room (channel) in which people wish to communicate with each other.

To avoid confusion, people could take turns speaking (time division), speak at different pitches (frequency division), or speak in different languages (code division).

CDMA is analogous to the last example where people speaking the same language can understand each other, but not other people.

Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of users is given a shared code. Many codes occupy the same channel, but only users associated with

a particular code can understand each other.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA

19/06/52 Chapter 4 43

3GSM (Third-generation Global System for Mobile Communication Services)

3GSM enables the delivery of mobile multimedia services such as music, TV and video, and Internet access.

GSM is an internationally accepted standard for digital cellularcommunication originating in Europe.

It is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the

third-generation (3G) mobile telecommunications technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology.

It is specified by 3GPP and is part of the global ITU IMT-2000 standard.

The most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) as the underlying air interface but the system also covers TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA (both IMT CDMA TDD).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System

19/06/52 Chapter 4 44

3GSM (Third-generation Global System for Mobile Communication Services) Being a complete network system, UMTS also covers the radio access

network (UMTS Terrestric Radio Access Network; UTRAN), the core network (Mobile Application Part; MAP) as well as authentication of users via USIM cards (Subscriber Identity Module).

Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier), UMTS requires new cell towers and new frequency allocations.

However, it is closely related to GSM/EDGE as it borrows and builds upon concepts from GSM.

Further, most UMTS handsets also support GSM, allowing seamless dual-mode operation.

Therefore, UMTS is sometimes marketed as 3GSM, emphasizing the close relationship with GSM and differentiating it from competing technologies.

The name UMTS, introduced by ETSI, is usually used in Europe. Outside of Europe, the system is also known by other names such as FOMA

or W-CDMA. In marketing, it is often just referred to as 3G.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System

19/06/52 Chapter 4 45

SMS (Small Message Service) A low-bandwidth messaging service for short messages (up to 160 bytes) Messages are transported using stored-and-forward in one of the following

two modes. In point-to-point SMS mode, a message is sent to another subscriber. In cell-broadcast SMS mode, messages such as traffic updates or news

updates are sent to multiple recipients. SMS text messages are used throughout companies, for example, by those

in sales who want prices for procurement managers closing purchases. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application on the planet,

with 2.4 billion active users, or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers sending and receiving text messages on their phones.

The SMS technology has facilitated the development and growth of text messaging.

The connection between the phenomenon of text messaging and the underlying technology is so great that in parts of the world the term "SMS" is used as a synonym for a text message or the act of sending a text message, even when a different protocol is being used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS19/06/52 Chapter 4 46

SIM Card Messages can also be stored in a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module)

card for later retrieval. The SIM is a smart card (i.e., has a portable memory chip) used with

carriers that operate on the GSM network. It acts like a tiny hard drive that activates the phone into which it is

inserted. The SIM holds personal identifying information, cell phone number,

phone book, text messages, and other data. A SIM card makes it easy to switch to a new phone since it can be

removed and inserted into a different phone. For international travel, a local SIM card can be bought and inserted

into the phone, which saves international roaming charges from the home carrier.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 47

EDGE(Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)

EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) technology significantly increased the capacity of GSM networks to enable data speeds of up to 384k bps.

EDGE allows the delivering of advanced mobile services such as the downloading of video and music clips, full multimedia messaging,high-speed color Internet access, and e-mail on the move.

TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) is a technology for delivering digital wireless service using time-division multiplexing.

TDMA is used by the GSM digital cellular system.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 48

Collaboration

Virtual collaboration (e-collaboration): the use of digital technologies that enable organizations or individuals to collaborative

Collaborative commerce (c-commerce): collaboration among business partners Supply chains Dealer/Partner Networks Product Networks

Collaboration refers to the mutual efforts of two or more individuals or groups to perform activities in order to accomplish certain tasks. These tasks range from designing products and documents, to teaching, to executing complementary subtasks, to working with customers, suppliers, and other business partners. In an effort to improve productivity and competitiveness collaboration can be supported electronically.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 49

Collaboration – Tools (Workflows) Workflow Technologies: the movement of information through the

sequence of steps that make up an organization’s work procedures or business processes. Workflow management is the automation of workflows from

start to finish, including all exception conditions. Workflow systems are business process automation tools

(software programs) that automate almost any information-processing task.

Workflow applications: Collaborative workflow: addresses project-oriented and

collaborative types of processes. Production workflow: addresses mission-critical, transaction-

oriented, high volume processes. Administrative workflow: is cross between collaborative and

production workflows.19/06/52 Chapter 4 50

Collaboration – Tools (Groupware)

Electronic Meeting Systems attempt to improve face-to-face meetings with their electronic counter-part.

Electronic Teleconferencing (Teleconferencing) is the use of electronic communication that allows two or more people at different locations to have a simultaneous conference. Video Teleconferencing (videoconference), participants in one

location can see participants at other locations. Data (data conferencing) can also be sent along with voice and video making it possible to work on documents together.

Web Conferencing is Videoconferencing solely conducted on the Internet

Software products that support groups of people who share a common task or goal and who collaborate on its accomplishment.Groupware implies the use of networks to connect people, even if the people are in the same room.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 51

Collaboration – Tools (Groupware)(continued)

Interactive Whiteboards work like the “physical world”whiteboards with markers and erasers, except instead of one person standing in front of a meeting room drawing on the whiteboard, all participants can join in.

Screen Sharing software, allows group members to work on the same document, which is shown on the PC screen of each participant.

Instant video, is a kind of real time chat room that allows you to see the person you are communicating with.

Real-time collaboration (RTC) Tools: help companies bridge time and space to make decisions and to collaborate on projects. RTC tools support synchronous communication of graphical and text-based information.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 52

E-Learning – Web-based Application

Blackboard Inc. (blackboard.com) offers a complete suite of enterprise software products and services that power a total “e-education infrastructure” for schools, colleges, universities, and other education providers.

WebCT (webct.com) provides a similar set of tools, but with a different vision and strategy. It uses advanced pedagogical tools to help institutions of higher education make distance-learning courses possible.

Distance learning (DL) refers to situations where teachers and students do not meet face-to-face. It can be done in different ways. E-learning is only one form of distance learning. It provides a new set oftools that add value to traditional learning modes. It does not replace the classroom setting, but enhances it, taking advantage of new content and delivery technologies.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 53

Social Networks Or social networking services Web sites that allow anyone to build a homepage for

free. People can list personal information, communicate

with others, upload files, communicate via Instant Messaging, or BLOG.

Social networks can contain links to user-generated content.

Although blogs and wikis are influential social tools, social software also includes IM, RSS, Internet forums, and social network services such MySpace and Bebo.

19/06/52 Chapter 4 54

Web 2.0– Web-based Application Web 2.0, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based

communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies) which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.

The term became popular following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.

Although the term suggests a new version of WWW, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web.

According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."[3]

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.[4] [5]

19/06/52 Chapter 4 55

Telecommuting – Web-based Application

There are numerous non-compensatory benefits and advantages for employees, employers, and society. The most important being improved productivity.

Some disadvantages for the employees are increased feelings of isolation, loss of fringe benefits, no workplace visibility, and lack of socialization.

Disadvantages to employers are difficulties in supervising work, potential data security problems, training costs, and the high cost of equipping and maintaining telecommuters’homes.

Telecommuting, or teleworking, refers to an arrangement whereby employees can work at home, at the customer’s premises, in special work places, or while traveling, usually using a computer linked to their place of employment.


Managerial Issues Organizational Impacts: Changes in Communication

forms Future of Technology Support: Movement toward

more collaboration Extending Organizational Boundaries: Growing

Reach of Organizations Virtual Work: Dispersed Organizations and the worker Single view of the Truth: improving information

integrity Social and Ethical Issues Telecommuting is a compelling venture, but

management needs to be careful.

mit-542 ระบบสารสนเทศเพื่อการจ ัดการ information...

Documents