Applet-Based Telecollaboration: A Network-Centric Approach

participants share multimedia documents and applications, have attracted interest for many years. The JETS system provides a generic multimedia telecollaboration framework that enables sharing of Java applets through the Internet. Experimentation with JETS revealed practical design and implementation issues, as well as the essential requirements of such systems. T he introduction of Java as a platform-independent programming language for the Internet has significantly affected related technologies. Embedding Java applets in HTML documents means applications now go to users in the form of applets instead of users having to find and install them. Users only need a Java-enabled platform, such as a Web browser, to access these applications. This Web-based approach is sometimes referred to as network-centric computing—users gain access to " computing " by simply connecting to a network and clicking on the correct link. They can then run any application provided by the network without having that application preinstalled on their machines, worrying about application level platforms , or considering hardware compatibility. Superficial analysis of such a computing method indicates that this approach has many advantages over desktop-centric computing. Users can transparently launch applications from a computer, a network station, or even a Java-enabled Web television in a just-as-needed, just-in-time fashion. Also, the management and maintenance of overall computing infrastructures will become simpler and cheaper. System administrators will upgrade or manage applications on a few servers as opposed to each and every desktop machine in their system. Today, many experts consider Java Internet computing's de facto programming language. Java's Web accessibility and platform-indepen-dence—its most important properties—set it apart from other type of programs. We assume that most readers are familiar with Java applets and refrain from discussing them further. Almost parallel to the Java paradigm, Web-based telecollaboration has also received much recent attention. Although computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems have existed for a long time, 1 Web-based collaboration tools that permit sharing multimedia applications among participants on the Internet have emerged only recently. Microsoft NetMeeting, Vocaltec ICP, and Netscape Collaborator, for example, are also equipped with audioconferencing capabilities. Some Java-based collaboration tools available, like the NCSA Habanero and the Java Collabora-tive Environment (JCE), allow sharing of basic multimedia applications. However, few of these tools use applets as their collaborative applications base. Although applets can usually be shared and converted to applications, a fundamental difference exists between sharing applets and applications: In practice, applets can be shared through a …