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IntraNets and Business Enterprise Information Systems

Intranets have been popular recently. These correspond to building enterprise information systems using WebWindows technology Figure 9, as discussed in Section 2.1. WebWindows can encompass the world (clients talking to large servers around the globe) or just a single machine (a PC Web browser linked to a server on the same machine) (Figure 4. Further, we can apply these ideas flexibly to any enterprise of intermediate size and use Web technology to build general information services. These will use traditional concepts (e.g., databases) but link these to the rich WebTop environment. Note that this means one should not reject Web technologies because of today's low bandwidth or insecure Internet. If we build, today, a WebWindows Intranet, it can have whatever bandwidth and security the enterprise network supports. One of the applications explored by NPAC is a politics information system built around Newt Gingrich's recent visit of a politician to the University [Maxwell:96a]. This illustrates how WebWindows systems can be built for information storage and on-line discussion of any loosely knit enterprise from political parties through special interest organizations.



Geoffrey Fox, Northeast Parallel Architectures Center at Syracuse University, gcf@npac.syr.edu