| dc.description.abstract | It a foregone conclusion that information systems has dramatically changed not only
the way we do things but even they way we think.
The advance of computer and especially the PC in the 1980s and data networks has
heralded a new chapter in regard to information processing, storage, exchange and
transfer.
Organisations, Governments and individuals have injected huge sums of money in
installing computers in the offices and networking them. This has effectively greatly
improved on information processing and managements from the traditional methods.
Data networks form LANs; to the Internet have provided a vehicle of data transfer
that has not been known before. This has propelled organisation to become distributed
by having multiple branches spread out within a campus, a city, between cities and all
over the world the Internet- a change in the mode of doing business.
Examples of such organisations include Retail business enterprises such as
supermarkets, Banks, Governments departments, Educational institutions such as
colleges and universities, Hospitals, Police stations, Pharmacy outlets etc.
One of the challenges to this development is the fact that people have not changed
from being themselves. Ideally people are social beings and need to interact whether
they are in different locations or not. The interaction range from the usual formal
meetings to the informal chat over a cup of tea or when people bump on each other
along the hall way and corridors.
However in distributed scenario the interaction becomes more complicated due to the
distances involved. There are a host of technologies out there that attempt to address
different interaction needs between people within organisations.
There is a great need to carefully look into the market for existing interaction
technologies, the interaction supported for workers and other players in an
organisation. A substantial piece of work is designing and implementing a model that
can support key interaction areas such as formal meetings within an organisation. | en_US |
