Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!csc.ti.com!ti-csl!m2.csc.ti.com!m2!bannon From: bannon@betelgeuse.csc.ti.com (Tom Bannon) Newsgroups: comp.groupware Subject: Re: Groupware Administration and Registration Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 91 01:14:27 GMT References: <1991Apr2.165839.1540@bellcore.bellcore.com> Sender: usenet@csc.ti.com (USENET News System) Organization: TI Computer Science Center, Dallas Lines: 59 In-Reply-To: quasar@bellcore.com's message of 2 Apr 91 16: 58:39 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: betelgeuse.csc.ti.com quasar@bellcore.com (Laurence R. Brothers) writes: > I'm writing a paper on groupware administration and registration, in > light of a family of systems I've developed. > > Specifically, I'm interested in general mechanisms, architectures, and > formalisms for doing the following: > > * apprising network users of the existence of running conferences > * allowing users access control to these conferences (ie, joining, > leaving, etc.) > * performing other administrative function including conference > initiation, termination, security functions, scheduling, etc. > > ("Conference" means instance of running groupware application to me). > > Naturally, some of these things happen in the context of specific > applications. I'm interested in general mechanisms to permit these > functions to occur in the context of a heterogeneous set of applications, > which may have different internal architectures. > > The only reference I've found that's even vaguely pertinent so far is > Greenberg's reference to some intelligent agents such as the "Registrar" > and so forth, and that's apparently intended to be an application-specific > mechanism, not an external system for groupware administration. > > Anything else? The "related work" section of my paper is a little thin..... I've written a paper and constructed a couple of prototypes dealing EXACTLY with this problem. The paper is: group: A Distributed Group Specification and Management Service Thomas J. Bannon and Ivor P. Page Proceedings of the Summer 1990 UKUUG Conference, pp. 61-76 ISBN 0 9513181 7 9 UKUUG stands for United Kingdom Unix User's Group; the conference was in London. The paper may be hard to find, and it is also pretty out of date, although the basic concepts are still in place (hierarchical group structure, client-server architecture, application independence, user authentication). I could possibly email or fax you a copy if you are really interested. I gave a demo of my system (then substantially evolved and renamed NGS - the Network Group Service) being used with group talk and group paint programs at CSCW '90 in LA, but I did not have a paper in the proceedings. (And the proceedings don't say anything about all the demos - bit of a hole there I think). Greenberg saw my demo and mentioned his paper; I later read it but found it light on details about his "Registrar". This was all done as part of my MSCS, but now that that's over I have not been working on NGS a whole lot, although I do think such a system would be very nice to have available, especially Internet-wide. I have been thinking about finishing up the software and releasing to the net, and maybe I will, but you know how that goes. Regards, Tom bannon@csc.ti.com