As a result of the successful 1997 Pre-Conference Workshop "Electronic Collaboration: Tomorrow’s Project Formation and Management with Today’s Internet Tools," NCMS will offer this session as a review and update on the latest advances of electronic collaboration technologies and tools. More and more project teams using the various tools are experiencing improvements in the time it takes to form and manage projects and are also realizing greatly optimized communications.

Who Should Attend:

This session is appropriate for any current or prospective NCMS project team participant, those interested in optimizing their collaborative efforts, and those wishing to maximize the use they get out of the Internet and the latest Web tools.

Tutorial Agenda:

8:00 am – 8:15 am
Welcome
John Sheridan, Executive Director, InfoTEST

9:15 am – 9:45 am
Providing Security and Authentication Services in an Extranet Environment
Lance Travis, Vice President, Engineering, DASCOM, Inc.

Objectives:

1. Provide an overview of current and future electronic collaboration tools,
2. Identify areas where electronic collaboration tools can reduce or replace the more costly alternatives,
3. Describe and demonstrate tools currently in use by NCMS project teams (WebBoard, Intranet, and Extranet),
4. Familiarize the audience with Internet document sharing and security issues.

Background:

Partnering on collaborative R&D programs has become an effective business strategy for firms facing today’s competitive pressures. The issue then becomes effective collaboration—tools that facilitate the NCMS collaborative process.

Using current and emerging technologies efficiently can result in greatly leveraged scarce resources – time and money, and simplify the complexities of team interaction over distance.

Many teams are successfully partnering on collaborative research programs using the Internet and various other tools. But, the question is no longer if you are using the Internet, but HOW you are using it. This workshop will describe how NCMS, its subsidiaries, and its members are using commonly available and emerging Internet tools in innovative ways to form projects, manage task assignments, improve project team communication and workflow, all while ensuring data security.

Technique:

This session will combine live demonstrations, vendor presentations and an open forum for discussion.

Session Contact: Kate Brayton - 734-995-3095, kateb@ncms.org