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For historic reasons: the CompuServe Forum was established in 1992 by the European Community Telematics Forum under the RACE programme, as a means of exchanging news and views electronically. The Forum attracted not only European project participants but also telematics experts and enquirers from around the world.
When the original funding expired, an appeal was launched in Forum for members to take over as volunteer sysops (system operators). All the present sysops volunteered apart from Andy Pieniazek and Richard Warren, who were co-opted later. Eventually Paddy Moindrot was appointed contract holder with CompuServe.
For two years the Forum was run on a voluntary basis, with the enthusiastic sysops putting in as many hours as they could spare, until the possibility of funding as a Support Action under the European Union’s Telematics Applications Programme became a reality in January 1996. The Commission recognised that the sysops offered a range of skills and experience of on-line mediation, and that these could be used for the benefit of Telematics Projects.
CompuServe is likely to remain the base for TWEURO, though other sites are also being examined, especially on the Internet, where a presence has already been established, and also on competitors such as Europe on-line.
However, CompuServe has much to offer, to both novice and experienced users. It is cheap, reliable and world-wide, with several European offices and a global membership of nearly 4 million, using 100s of special interest areas known as forums, some of which are language-specific Facilities include virus-checked libraries, a structured conferencing system, easy binary file transfer, and real-time conferencing. Over the last year it has become a fully-fledged Internet provider: indeed all members are provided with a free megabyte of web space and the software to design and upload their own pages. Visit http://www.compuserve.com to get more details.
Our forum, TeleWork Europa, aims to promote and enhance the use of telework in all its many forms, and to disseminate information about Telematics projects to a world-wide audience.
Connecting to CompuServe through TelNet
You can connect to CompuServe through any Internet provider, provided you have a CompuServe account (about 8.6 ecus per month) and have the latest WinCIM software. All CompuServe options will be open to you, through your SLIP or PPP account. Use this procedure:
Start WinCIM. Select the Session Settings option on the Special menu. Then press the New button to make a new session, calling it Internet Connect perhaps.
These fields should contain the following values:
Press the OK button to close the Session Settings Window. You are now ready to make an Internet connection to CompuServe.
Make sure you are connected to the Internet, with SLIP or PPP
Use CompuServe!
When you have finished, disconnect like you normally do, by giving the appropriate socket command to end your session.
This months’ featured Telematics Project:
TeleMart is a trans-European on-line work agency for teleworkers. TeleMart is looking at existing services provided by teleworkers, and also surveying companies to identify opportunities for work which could be contracted out to teleworkers.
The project is currently testing a pilot on-line work brokerage system or "virtual marketplace" on the Internet where organisations can locate suitable suppliers of teleworked services and negotiate terms and quality of the services. The design of the system will also take into account the experiences of existing conventional commercial work agencies, which act as a guarantee of the quality of the workers provided to their client companies. TeleMart will aim to create a reliable, high quality market "brand" acceptable to both sides of the market - the teleworkers and their client companies.
TeleMart will work with the client companies through "information audits" to resolve blocks on contracting out telework from the customer standpoint (such as issues of confidentiality), and will assist the service providers (teleworkers) to refine their services in line with their customers’ needs, and to develop appropriate quality control systems. The TeleMart consortium includes three project partners with several years of experience of acting as ad hoc brokers of telework services in conjunction with economic development activities in rural areas (TeleCottages Wales, Cobalt Trade Relations, Sweden and the Enterprise Network, Newfoundland), and in urban centred/rural operating conditions (Telergos) in France and the UK. Octacon Ltd, based in north east England, has substantial experience in technical aspects of Internet service provision, and is currently working on a service management system for video on demand trials which will be adapted to form the basis of the TeleMart on-line system, incorporating secure Email standards, digital signatures, electronic contracts and X.500 directory services. Zeus (Greece), operating in regions with less developed teleworking markets and telecoms infrastructure, will contribute to the design of the system, and carry out trials to develop the system for southern European conditions once the initial demonstration project results are available.
For more information, Email the Project Manager John Hall at 100126.1423@compuserve.com, or visit the Web site at http://www.octacon.co.uk/proj/TeleMart/
Computer Supported Co-operative Work ( CSCW ) & Groupware
By Andy Pieniazek
This short introduction to CSCW and groupware should draw our members attention to these interesting developments. We have to assume that CSCW & groupware will be playing increasingly important role also in "classical" teleworking areas.
Lot of CSCW & groupware generic elements ( Email, common data storage and electronic conferencing ) are actually well known to most of experienced teleworkers using different platforms in their work. But today most of the teleworkers seem to be individuals rather than teams or organisations and thus automatically limited in their activities. The CSCW is opening new ways to change this situation - better integrate teleworkers in all possible work areas.
Groupware is defined ( Ellis ) as "computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment." While groupware refers to real computer-based systems, means the notion CSCW the study of tools and techniques of groupware as well as their psychological, social and organisational effects. "CSCW a generic term which combines the understanding of the way people work in groups with the enabling technologies of computer networking, and associated hardware, software, services and techniques." ( Wilson) CSCW and groupware have been the subject of interest among various research groups for over a decade.
Only recently due to advent of information’s technology on one hand and changing nature of work in organisations first attempts are being made to practically deploy this experience.
At present there is a strong trend toward the web based applications since this medium seems to offer unique opportunities for the implementation of the CSCW. The web based CSCW applications have still to overcome typical web limitations but momentary results are very promising.
As the name implies CSCW addresses the group or team needs when they work together, the communications technology makes it irrelevant where the actual team members are physically located. CSCW offers substantial business benefits to the organisations:
In the meantime CSCW and groupware are well represented on the web. We quote few links only that would lead to other links not only with the information material but also to the pilot sites where working examples can be seen:
The road warrior's dream solution?
By Freddie Dawkins
Ever been stuck at a concertation meeting, laptop in hand and no idea how to connect via the local,
strange, foreign, telephone box on the bedroom wall? Well, all your problems are over if you take a
look at the possibilities in the TeleAdapt catalogue.
TeleAdapt is a company with offices in the UK, Australia and the US. It's role in life is quite simple, to sell gizmos which make your life easier when you need to connect to a telephone line in a country other than your own.
I've used TeleAdapt products for almost six years now - and they have never let me down - once, even using an acoustic coupler (looks like a small telephone) held onto a public telephone in Finnish Lapland by rubber bands (bit of improvisation!) and managed to file some important stories back to a news agency in Brussels via CompuServe's Email service.
Two of the company's most recent products have become best sellers - TELESPOOL is simply a
neat idea if you are fed up carrying a mass of "knitting" around - the knitting of your modem-telephone
cable! Now, you can carry a 2.5 metre extendable R11!-RJ11 cable around using little more space
than a credit card! The IBM Modem Saver has become quite well known over the last year or so with
the growing popularity of digital switchboards. The new PC card modems don't really appreciate the
electric current surges which these switchboards can output, so the Modem Saver is a safety device
which provides a true test of the line and warns if there is a potentially dangerous over current.
Further information:
Sara Osman
TeleAdapt Ltd
Leeway House
Leeway Close
Hatch End
Middlesex HA5 4SE
Tel: +44 181 421 4444
Fax: +44 181 421 5308
100111.2713@compuserve.com
Internet: teleadapt@delphi.com
News Round Up
Collated by Freddie Dawkins
Translantic Internet connectivity
Connectivity between Europe and the US is continuously being upgraded on EuropaNET. Currently 20 Mbps, are in place and the latest increase in capacity was organised by Cambridge-based reserach group DANTE on behalf of UKERNA and SWITCH - and DANTE has had further enquiries about increasing the connected capacity. There are major developments underway in European research networking as a result of national initiatives complemented by the TEN-34 project and the clear need is for European and North American researchers to interconnect at least 45 Mbps and preferably higher speeds. There is however a major disincentive to this in the lack of US co- funding of the necessary infrastructure.
On a conservative estimate, European researchers pay at least 80% of the cost of the connectivity with their North American counterparts. There is some co-funded capacity but this is organised to connect to specific national research networks within Europe. In view of the relatively balanced traffic loads between the European research Internet and the North American Internet this state of affairs is inequitable. DANTE, along with a number of others, is pressing for a fairer way of sharing costs between Europe and North America. An approach whereby national research networks collaborate in the establishment of transatlantic connectivity could provide a solution for the inequities that currently exist. By offering US researchers access to a 'greater' European research Internet the case for a better balance in transatlantic funding would be strengthened.
Trans European Networks -TEN-34: the work has started
The technical work for TEN-34, the project to implement a high speed pan-European network infrastructure for research with 50% co-funding by the EC, has taken off seriously now. All national networks in the consortium have now signed the contract and by adding its signature the CEC will formally conclude the contract. The project plan envisages the setting up of two subnetworks (one by Unisource and the other by BT, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia), which are interconnected, while networks in countries outside these two groups will connect to either of the two. DANTE, as co-ordinating partner in the TEN-34 consortium, is addressing the many technical and organisational issues that arise in this huge, multi-party project.
A policy perspective on networking
In Europe, political issues probably play a more substantial role in networking than technology does. How else to explain the relatively poor state of the European Internet (compared to the US)? In some instances policy issues have been the main obstacles to progress, for example in the case of the national telecoms monopolies, or the lack of co-funding of US-European connectivity by American telecom operators.
In a new 'policy perspectives' section on their WWW server DANTE addresses some of the issues that European research networking has to tackle - as well as making suggestions on how they could be addressed to speed up the establishment of a high quality network infrastructure for European researchers.
URL: http://www.dante.net/policy.html.
DANTE
Lockton House
Clarendon Road
Cambridge
CB2 2BH
UK
Telephone: +44 1223 302992
Fax: +44 1223 303005
E-mail dante@dante.org.uk
Josefien Bersee
French E-mail users decide to join forces
The inaugural meeting of the French E-mail User Group within EEMA (the European Electronic Messaging Association) was held in Paris on 23 April at the Meridien Hotel, Montparnasse. The meeting, which follows the successful establishment of German and Dutch (E-mail) User Groups, was attended by representatives from large French user companies, consultants, research organisations and other electronic commerce associations, including Control Data, Unilever, Rhone-Poulenc, COMSTRAT and Philips.
The general view of those who attended was that top management within some sectors of French business is concerned about and wary of the business benefits associated with the implementation of electronic messaging - due to the effect of the spread and distribution of information throughout corporations - and the security/access measures required to restrict it.
There is also a general economic concern within French companies which appears to be causing the rejection of plans to introduce electronic messaging on a cost basis -without companies being fully aware of the cost/benefit equation or of the potential costs of not moving forward with the technology.
It was generally agreed by those present at the meeting that there is a need for French E-mail users to collaborate and co-operate to exchange information and experiences in order to make significant progress in the implementation of changes and services which wouldmeet their needs. One of the main topics which those at the meeting felt should be addressed was that of security, but also under consideration are the implications of the introduction of electronic messaging for corporate structure, employee relations and efficiency.
Those companies represented at the meeting agreed that it was of vital importance for French business to embrace the commercial advantages which electronic messaging and electronic commerce can bring, and agreed that a series of future meetings would aim to educate and encourage French companies to adopt electronic messaging and develop their current technologies.
A further meeting will be convened in the near future and all interested parties are invited to participate. Details can be obtained from Chantal Lagoute of Rhone Poulenc Informatique, who will be organising the next meeting.
Internet: chantal.lagoute@rp.fr
X400: G=chantal; S=lagoute; O=rp-informatique; P=rp; A=atlas; C=fr
Tel: +33 1 47 68 2662
Spanish Internet users finally get a stable network
Spanish communications might be attaining their majority. A few Internet access providers are ready to go for the mythical 2 Mbps lines. So far, national PTO Telefónica has been a wholesale reseller with its 2 Mbps access to Internet. Now, the growing number of users notice that they can no longer blame the overcrowded North American lines, as more Spanish information servers appear. There is now a Spanish-language index at http://www.ole.es.
The recent Spanish elections' scrutiny was both in Internet and in Infovia (the national Internet-like network) in real time. The demand surpassed the Ministry's prevision, and its WWW server was blocked for the first few hours. El Mundo, a national newspaper, had offered to mirror the main results, but there wasn't much official interest. Mirroring is one of the short term solutions to the high demand for bandwith. However, only a few companies offer mirrors of other servers. While programming tools find their way into Universities and other research institutions, commercial providers seem reluctant to give up a part of their precious resources for the common good.
Regional telematics in Spain
The Spanish National Telecommunications Plan launched the ARTE/PYME project (Regional Actions in Telecommunications/Small and Medium Enterprises) in order to promote the use of telematics in several areas:
Andersen Consulting has just presented a study on telework with some prospective test cases from the textile and furniture industries among others. These initiatives will be difficult to carry out without some basic help and guidance for the technophobes. Otherwise, there is a risk of repeating the fax experience, and a fax machine was already intuitive when the telephone was invented. A group of Internet enthusiasts have founded the Internet Club of Navarra, a not-for-profit organisation, in order to show how telematics can be used productively.
Further information:
URL: http://www.encomix.es/eema.
Those with just email access, send a message to w3mail@encomix.es with 'send http://www.encomix.es/eema' in its body.
Armando Ramos & Freddie Dawkins
European Telework Week '96 set for November
The second annual European Telework Week will be held this year from Monday November 4 to Monday November 11. The following organisations have registered an interest in being invloved in the week in the UK:
European travel industry turns on to telematics
Bitour bears the inimitable brand of a CEC project: launched as a pioneering and innovative scenario with multinational players operating in one industry sector, its deployment has been driven primarily by basic market forces. Bitour's eventual achievement will be to "allow the true integration of the entire travel community in a standard and non-proprietary fashion which will bring profound economies of scale and scope to the process of actually delivering the holiday experience to the traveller," according to Clive McGinn at Scitor (the marketing arm of SITA, the world' largest private network operator owned by the airline industry and based in Paris)
The Bitour project: a tribute to TEDIS
In September 1994, Bitour was launched by TEDIS ( until December 1996, the EDI champion of the European Commission), as the last in a series of three projects designed to stimulate the use of electronic commerce in Travel, Transport and Leisure (TTL), an information-intensive sector still resistant to the new trading credo. Bitour's primary goal was to raise awareness in the sector, culminating in a pilot with participants trading electronically, both nationally and internationally. Typically, Bitour forms a pan-European family with siblings in Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the UK, all of which have developed differently because of their diverse national environments. In April 1996, despite a chequered and slow progress, in the bottom-line-dominated TTL sector, with a few large "principals" dictating their proprietary trading rules to myriads of smaller, commercially-dependent partners, Bitour generated a European Open EDI community, poised to exchange UN-EDIFACT messages in interactive and batch mode within just a very few months.
Marketing Opportunities
Fortunately, Bitour exists in a propitious climate of change. Standardisation issues are prominent, such as the formal recognition of Interactive EDI (I-EDI) within UN/EDIFACT.
The Pharos Push
First to make a move was Pharos Data Communications which offered (free-of-charge for the duration of the pilot) a solution based on the company's well-referenced (in the UK and elsewhere) suite of software products supporting UN/EDIFACT, Unicorn and ATB2 via EDI and APACS standards. Pharos' European clients jointly account for over 200,000 interactive messages per annum and the company perceived in Bitour a vehicle for widening significantly its client base. "We want to gain market share by selling Open EDI to the masses!" comments Alan Warburton of Pharos.
A few months later, another SME - this time a user - moved to centre stage. Forces Holidays specialises in selling holiday packages to British Forces personnel based in Germany. The small tour operator was actively looking for a way of reducing communications cost and time between Germany and the UK and was the first to place an order with Pharos. "The prospect of reducing my costs from £35.00 to £5.00 per booking, through an open solution, was an offer I could not refuse!" explains George Constantinou of Forces.
Cosmos: a new link
Fourth in the UK tour operator market, Cosmos viewed the Bitour project as a means of extending the practice of paperless trading in the company, and a migratory link between proprietary solutions and standards-based EDI. The Transfer of the Rooming List to its ground handlers in the resorts was already automated. Now Cosmos wanted to automate the ground handler's information transfer to local services, including hotels, car hire companies and others."
P&O Travel
P&O Travel, which implemented a global X.400 MHS network in 1995, views EDI and electronic commerce as the next step in its drive to increased corporate efficiency and recently placed an order for the Pharos software. The company - part of the P&O group employing 700,000 people worldwide - provides in-bound (including ground handling) services to international airlines such as American Airlines and Cathay Pacific. In addition, P&O Travel also operates as a ground-handler for P&O Cruises. "Over 10,000 transatlantic faxes a year from one client...we've got to get rid of this paper mountain" comments Susan Cracknell.
With the exception of Spain (where software developed by the service provider, Bitel, will be used), Pharos has also rallied user companies from all participating countries, including Griffin Travel (Greece), Enatur (Portugal), Menzell (Germany) and Alpitur (Italy). The Bitour runners are now within sight of the starting line and, with all the usual caveats, the plan for completing the last preparatory tasks has been drawn and agreed. By mid-May, Bitel should provide the final Message Revision and Examples; during June.
Further information:
Eliane Mackintosh
EMMA
Tel: +44 171 724 1267
Fax: +44 171 258 0659
Internet: 100350.2671@compuserve.com
Eliane Mackintosh & Freddie Dawkins
CommerceNet and W3C payments initiative
CommerceNet and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have announced an initiative to standardise payment method negotiation for the Web. The formation of the Joint Electronic Payments Initiative (JEPI), is a project that addresses the need for a standardised way of negotiating payment methods between browsers and servers on the World Wide Web.
The international JEPI team will develop a negotiation protocol that it plans to demonstrate in September in both Europe and the U.S. Led jointly by the W3C and CommerceNet, JEPI brings together some of the industry’s leading companies in a collaborative work environment that is expected to accelerate the adoption and use of Internet payment solutions.
Core participants include CyberCash, the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC), GC Tech, IBM, Microsoft, Open Market Inc. and the Open Software Foundation (OSF). In addition, VeriFone is playing a key role in the effort. These companies have committed significant personnel resources to the project, as well as financial support. Within the next six months, JEPI’s goal is to:
Besides the core members of JEPI, other participants in the initiative include: Bellcore, BT, Citibank, CUC International, Deloitte & Touche Consulting, First Virtual Holdings, France Telecom, Marshall Industries, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), NetBill (Carnegie Mellon University), Netscape Communications Corporation, NTT Software Laboratories (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Nokia, Novell, Oracle, Sligos, Tandem Computers, the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, VENDAMALL and Zenith Data Systems.
"As much as we would all like to see a single payment solution for Web commerce, the reality is that we are going to have several," said Tom Wills, Senior Programme Manager for CommerceNet and co-chair of JEPI. "Web browsers and servers will have different capabilities, so when it comes time to make payment, they will each have to figure out which methods and protocols the other can handle - then they will be able to synch up and complete the transaction. JEPI will make this process easier by building a standard mechanism that the browser, server, and payment middleware can plug into."
About W3C
The W3C exists to develop common protocols and reference codes for the evolution of the World Wide Web. It is an industry consortium hosted by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and NRIA, the Institut National de Recherché en Informatique en Automatique. W3C provides a forum for members to discuss and steer the evolution of the Web; expertise in system architecture and protocol design; a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users; reference code implementations to embody and promote protocols; and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate the use of new technology. Membership is open to any organisation. The Consortium already comprises more than 130 organisations.
Further information:
W3C Consortium
URL: http://www.w3.org.
About CommerceNet
CommerceNet, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is a consortium of more than 140 companies and organisations whose mission is to accelerate Internet-based electronic commerce by:
Further information:
CommerceNet
Tel: +1 415 617 8790
or send an e-mail to info@commerce.net,
URL: http://www.commerce.net.
