Practical Internet Groupware

Blurb

Collaboration. From its academic roots to the bustling commerce sites
of today, the Internet has always been about collaboration: providing a
means for people to communicate and work together effectively. But how
do you build effective tools for collaboration? How do you build tools
that are simple enough for people to really use, yet powerful enough to
really facilitate collaboration?
In 1995 Jon Udell became executive editor for new media at BYTE
magazine, taking on the challenge of building an online presence for a
traditional print publication. In meeting this challenge, he discovered
that he was managing an online community, not just an online
publication. He discovered that he was building not just a set of
documents, but a suite of Internet-based groupware applications in
which editors, writers, and readers all participated.
Practical Internet Groupware details the lessons learned from that experience. Drawn from the author's real world experience, Practical Internet Groupware
describes the tools and technologies for building and rapidly deploying
groupware applications, and also discusses the design philosophy and
usability issues that determine the success or failure of any groupware
endeavor.
The key to success lies in using simple tools, often open source, that
effectively blend in established Internet technologies that have always
had a collaborative aspect (SMTP, NNTP) with new technologies that
enhance our ability to manage collaborative documents (HTTP, XML). The
result is an approach that codifies the idea that many web content
providers have long suspected: yesterday's online content is fast
becoming tomorrow's network-based applications.