Research Recommendations to Facilitate Distributed Work (1994) / Chapter Skim
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4 FACILITATING DISTRIBUTED WORK
4 FACILITATING DISTRIBUTED WORK
Pages 46-55
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From page 46... ...
Although many of the technical and design issues can be addressed in research laboratories, the issue of user acceptance must be considered at other levels as well: until software producers see a sufficient market for these products, for example, they may be reluctant to make the large investment in research and software development required to overcome the significant barriers. Complexity-of-Use Barriers Today, to effectively engage in distributed work or telecommuting, one must absorb a large amount of technical detail and have access to an array of equipment.
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From page 47... ...
However, if a hotel or customer site lacks telephone jacks, or has only digital telephone lines, accessing the customer database can be impossible. In fact, inveterate mobile workers can sometimes be identified by the contents of their well-stocked portable computer cases: screwdrivers and pliers to disassemble telephones, various patch cords with alternate telephone plugs or alligator clips, handset adapters, audio-coupled modems, and digital line adapters.
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From page 48... ...
For example, Omnet, the network company that provides electronic mail and bulletin board services to oceanographers has a toll-free telephone number enabling ~ ~ ~ 1 C' an oceanographer to talk to a real person Who will tell him/her how to set the parity bits or the local access phone number for accessing electronic mail from Bogota, Bulgaria, or Burlington. Omnet also manages electronic mail distribution lists for distributed projects, ensuring that everyone's electronic mail address is up-to-date and providing hard-copy postal or facsimile delivery to people without electronic mail.
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From page 49... ...
While general market forces will probably continue to reduce unit prices, researchers and individuals making decisions about distributed work should remember the importance of reducing prices for both infrastructure items and services. DESIGNING COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT A RANGE OF CAPABILITIES FOR DISTRIBUTED WORK High-speed, broadband communications will be needed to handle the multimedia environment envisioned for both distributed work and the National Information Infrastructure.
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From page 50... ...
These activities impose different requirements for data transmission rate, or bandwidth, on the supporting technologies. The data transmission rate is a measure of the speed with which a given technology can exchange data and is normally measured in bits per second (bps)
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From page 51... ...
How could high network bandwidth and abundant, inexpensive desktop computing power be combined and integrated to enable, for example, useful and innovative distance learning applications to improve education? Some possibilities, with widely differing bandwidth requirements, might include the following: .
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From page 52... ...
MEETING REQUIREMENTS FOR MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION The distributed work environments of the future will clearly involve the transmission and reception of multiple types of communications traffic, including voice, data images, video, and data files. Multimedia communication is particularly demanding because video
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From page 53... ...
User Requirements The type of distributed work session might range from that involving a single individual carrying a wireless-network computer interacting with a remote database to a large-scale multimedia teleconference or group work session involving many remotely located parties as well as specialized servers for video, image, and data. Individuals in such a multimedia, multiparty conference or work session must be free to come and go.
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From page 54... ...
A wireless networking environment capable of handling multimedia traffic; and 3. Multimedia communication protocols appropriate over wide areas and involving multiple parties in heterogeneous computing environments, i.e., multimedia, multiparty protocols.
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From page 55... ...
The recently punished Re~hzi~ fha IF ["franc (CSTB' 1994b) has caged for an expanded program of research to support an Open Data NeL work architecture that would facilitate multimedia traffic.
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