TOOLS INTRODUCED INTO CEWES MSRC -- C/C

Tango Interactive

Tango Interactive is a Java-baed web collaboratory developed by NPAC
at Syracuse University (with initial funding from AF Rome Lab).  It is
implemented with standard Internet technologies and protocols, and
runs inside an ordinary Netscape browser window (support for other
browsers is in progress).  Tango delivers real-time multimedia content
in an authentica two-way interactive format.  Tango was originally
designed to suppport collaborative workgroups, though synchronous
distance education and training, which can be thought of as a
highly structured kind of collaboration, had become one of the key
application areas of the system.

The primary Tango window is called the Control Application (CA).  From
the CA, participants have access to many tools, including:

o SharedBrowser, a special-purpose web browser window that "pushes"
web documents onto remote client workstations.

o WebWisdom, a presentation environment for lectures, foilsets, and
similar materials.

o Whiteboard, for interactive text and graphics display.

o Several different kinds of chat tools.

o BuenaVista, for two-way audio/video conferencing.

Tango has been deployed for some time at the CEWES MSRC and at Jackson
State University for use in joint Syracuse-Jackson State distance
education work begun in Year 2.  More recently, Tango Interactive has
been used to deliver PET trainings, through installations at all four
of the MSRCs and other sites as well.

During Year 3, a substantial investment has been made in the Tango
Interactive system to increase its stability and robustness to a level
commensurate with deamnds of routine use in education, training, and
collaboration.  These efforts resulted in the first release suitable
for general deployment, in May 1998, and a new release with additional
improvements at the end of Year 3.