Conferencing and Collaborative Computing

In particular, these developments are a result of the emergence of standards for interoperability. Windowing systems, such as the X window system [Sch88], configurable graphical user interfaces, like the Tk/Tcl toolkit [Ous90, Ous91], and a widely available network application programming interfaces (API), such as Unix sockets [Sun88], all have given rise to more generalized software platforms on top of which interoperable systems can be built. Additionally , the increased speed of processors, disks and networks have contributed to the more rapid adoption of distributed solutions and the move to include various real-time media as standard data types. In conclusion, however, there are still many aspects about computer architectures that make it difficult to achieve widespread availability of these services, from the need for communication standards to seamless techniques to accommodate multiuser GUIs. There is the continued challenge to support not only small groups or moderate sized organizations [Gru94], which have traditionally been the focus of most groupware systems, but much larger scale telecollaborations [Sc93a]. The expectation is that integrated solutions, combining audio, video and shared work-spaces, will eventually make it as easy to rendezvous electronically as it is physically. But, more importantly, telecollaborations must support not one, but many real-world interaction protocols. Finally, an integral part of the coming-of-age process will be the continued attention to issues beyond the scope of technology itself.