EIES provides computerized conferencing, electronic mail, membership directory services, data collection forms, global searches, personal indexing, and many more advanced CMC features.
Designed with special features and communication structures, EIES facilitates the following group applications: general discussion, project management, training and education (Virtual Classroom), large scale information exchange, group judgment and decision support, Delphi exercises and brain storming, planning and budgeting, data gathering and validation, collaborative composition, document distribution and review.
All members may participate in their group oriented conferences at any hour of the day or night and from any location convenient for them. Individual conferences can also be structured to function as bulletin boards or text oriented databases.
Members may attach binary or other types of files to messages and comments. EIES can be used as a vehicle to transfer such material among members and between workstations.
All conference comments and messages are centrally stored with key word indexing. Only the original of an item is stored in the EIES System which minimizes the problems of record management. The single original allows for automatic notification to members of modifications to memos and drafts, and facilitates collaborative activities among groups of members.
EIES keeps track of new items for each individual user. Members may set up their own personal "filters" for self organization of incoming messages and conference comments. EIES also provides automatic notifications and alerts members of any transaction of concern to them.
The EIES interface provides menus, commands, and answer ahead facilities. EIES provides both a full screen mode (VT100) interface as well as an alternative batch and line mode. For Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users, EIES accommodates 'Cut-and-Paste' functions to pass information to and from EIES conference comments and mail messages.
EIES was designed to be fully distributed in a TCP/IP network environment. EIES can be comprised of multiple independent user and group agent machines which operate under the UNIX operating system. This distributed environment means that a very large user population can be supported in a single EIES system. Each agent machine incorporates its own X.400 compatible remote operation server (ROS). EIES is based upon an object oriented data base which can be augmented utilizing the X.409 standard specification language for communications data bases. As a result, emerging standards for business forms and documents can be easily added to the database in the future.
EIES has been optimized on SUN 4(Sparc), DEC/VAXStation and HP 800 series computers. Optimization on other UNIX type systems is available by special arrangement. EIES has Internet, Ethernet, and X.25 interfacing already included.
The EIES interface is written in a fourth generation language: fully distributed SMALLTALK developed at NJIT. Application programmers in your organization can easily learn to integrate other computer resources (e.g. databases and information services) directly into the interface. The SMALLTALK source for application programmers is available as a part of a Developers Toolkit. The EIES interface design supports communication with other computer resources through the same easy processes used for internal EIES communications. Users may tailor their own personal macro commands which can improve their response time when not directly connected to a EIES server.
EIES provides a solution to network applications in an organizational setting. Both in terms of integration of facilities and the tailorability of the system, EIES presents a long term approach to the evolution of network services within an organization.
EIES is currently in operation at sites in the US, Europe and the Caribbean. The EIES effort at NJIT is a product of the R&D effort in Computer Mediated Communications that has been in existence since 1975. EIES is the current platform on which the Center will be evolving new features based upon its efforts at prototype and evaluating new applications for group communications via computer networks.
PRODUCTS
Current and planned products include:
The EIES system;
Virtual Classroom (R): enhancements to support education and training;
Roundtable*: enhancements for distributed group decision support;
Gateway*: enhancements to support a fully distributed system which is integrated with other organizational computer resources.
Developers Toolkit: SMALLTALK source plus files to change the user interface including the menu language.
Training seminars for members, facilitators, and/or trainers.
Training of facilitators in the use of asynchronous or synchronous conferencing for such applications as: decision support, planning, training and education, project management, etc;
Training of application programmers in the use of SMALLTALK for tailoring the interface and integrating other computer resources;
Training for educators in the use of the Virtual Classroom (R);
Seminars on use of the technology for managers and professionals;
Prototyping specific applications on an EIES utility at NJIT;
Specific tailoring and integration efforts;
Evaluation studies of productivity enhancement for field trials.
If you would like to have a group in your organization prototype use of EIES, accounts are available at NJIT. Access is by SprintNet or direct dial. If you would like to test EIES in your own environment, trial copies of EIES are available for a nominal fee. For details:
Write: CCCC at NJIT, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102-1982
Internet: EIES@NJIT.EDU
Phone: 201 - 596 - EIES (3437) Fax: 201 - 596 - 2309
* EIES and Virtual Classroom are registered trademarks of New Jersey Institute of Technology. Trademarks have been requested for the names "Roundtable" and "Gateway".