Electronic Information Exchange System (R)

Computerized Conferencing and Group Communications Tools for the Future

No other computer conferencing system has the full range of features that are included in EIES. It has many advantages over traditional types of communication. EIES is faster than regular mail, more private and secure than FAX, and removes time constraints; participants need not be present at the same time. Conversations can be spread out over time -- from a few hours to months.

Think of EIES as an electronic meeting place, post office, and workroom. Thoughts, ideas, and news can be communicated with people who are across the street, across the state, or across the country, any time of the day or night. At the same time, EIES automatically keeps a transcript of your previous meetings and conversations on the system. You can quickly scan through this transcript at any time to find the specific items you need. This transcript is private and only accessible by you.

Using a personal computer or computer terminal and a modem, you can dial EIES through your home or office telephone lines, and carry on conversations by typing and reading. You can also exchange private electronic mail with other EIES members, and take part in computer conferences -- the electronic meeting "places" of EIES.

Complex projects can be planned with colleagues who are thousands of miles and several time zones away. Private mail and public announcements can be exchanged. Drafts of documents can be revised simultaneously by several EIES collaborators in locations distant from each other. Long distance conversations can take place for the cost of a local call.

With EIES you can distribute information over a distance, if your company has several buildings or your college has several campuses.

EIES saves you valuable time by allowing you to sort the tasks requiring your immediate attention from those tasks that are less urgent.

Applications

Network Integration

EIES provides a solution to the problems faced by organizations with internal computer networks. It allows for the integration of other computer resources into one tailorable interface.

The EIES interface allows people to communicate with one another or with other computer programs and databases with equal ease.

Education and Training Using EIES, students can access the "Virtual Classroom" (R), an innovative program which brings college or corporate classes into their homes and work places.

Meeting at a Distance

Convene a mini-conference, symposium, or brain-storming session, without the expense of travel and the inconvenience of leaving the office.

Features

EIES is system of tremendous versatility. It goes far beyond the advantages of E-Mail by providing many advanced features such as:

Conferences

An electronic meeting where you and other members discuss specific topics. Conversations are linked together and organized automatically by the system so they can be easily followed. Conferences may be structured to also serve as bulletin boards or text data bases.

Notifications

One line notes inform you of activities and transactions on the system that involve you. You are notified when someone reads a message you have sent, when you are added to a conference, and when someone replies to an item you sent.

Mail

Members can send private messages to one or several other members, or to all the members of a particular conference. Mail can also be sent to and received from external networks such as Internet.

User Defined Commands

Allows users to define their own EIES commands.

File Transfer

Transfer any type of computer file into EIES. Budgets, graphs, and documents can be put directly into a conference for discussion.

Filters

Criteria set by you that locate priority items for your immediate attention.

Global Search

Conducts searches and other operations across mail and conferences on EIES. You can collect specialized lists from information stored anywhere on EIES.

Forms

Collect information from individuals you specify. EIES allows you to create a form and send it to other users on the system.

Activities

Executable programs that can be added to mail or conference comments. One type of activity, an electronic gradebook, keeps Virtual Classroom students informed of their grades and average as compared to the whole class.

Personal Keys

Provide a personal filing system for mail and conference comments.

World Wide Web

EIES users can access the wealth of information available on the Internet and other networks using the EIES WWW gateway.

Tailorability

The EIES interface is written in a state of the art 4th generation language, Smalltalk. The Smalltalk source is available for installation and application programmers to modify the interface and integrate other computer and information resources to the EIES interface. This facility allows an organization to tailor the system and to utilize it as an integration facility for other applications. Training for application programmers in this area is available from NJIT.

Structure

EIES may be fully distributed in any local area (Ethernet) or packet switched (X.25) network. This means that the number of users that can be supported by a single EIES system is limited only by the hardware available in the network. Users can dial a local "group agent" which will update coupled group agents at other locations rather than having to make a long distance call. EIES will appear as a single system to the total user population.

Machine Requirements

EIES operates on the current generation of HP and Sun UNIX machines, and on DEC RISC/Ultrix and IBM/AIX servers. Porting to other UNIX environments can be arranged on an individual basis. The minimum memory requirement for a multiuser system is 16 MB. The minimum CPU requirement is .5 MIPS per user. Connection to Internet and Bitnet is available with the EIES internal interface.

Development

Future enhancements to EIES are tied to research and development programs at NJIT and Ph.D. programs in Computer Science and Management. Major extensions to EIES will be made to support such areas as the delivery of distance education, group decision support, planning and budgeting, and product design and development. It is hoped that many of the experimental group facilities developed by CCCC over the years will be integrated in the new World Wide Web interface via Mosaic and Netscape.

For more information contact: The Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center at New Jerseyt Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982 or send e-mail to: