Electronic Meetings - CSCW and GDSS

Lotus Notes Application

• In the United States, more than 3200 companies are using Notes
  to improve business processes, including customer service, sales and
  account management, and product development
  

  Quick Contents of this Page

  • What is Lotus Notes ?
  • Features of Lotus Notes
  • Advantages & Limitations
  • Future Developement for real-time communication
  • References (#6 & #7)

What is Lotus Notes ?

• a mail and teleconferencing system for LAN-based users
• each LAN site has a Note server which stores the database created by users
  

Features of Lotus Notes

• Electronic mail system
1. For sending one-to-one or one-to-many Notes document; files such as
   spreadsheet, word processing files or other Notes documents can be
   attached to messages
   
2. Support business communication in a many-to-many structure
   
3. Users can customize view of their mail database
   eg. sort by sender, date
   
4. Security features such as signing, encrypting are provided for
   communication of sensitive information through the system
   
• Conferencing tool
1. Groups create their own discussion database.
   
2. Any group member can put up a main document which introduces
   a new idea or topic to be discussed.
   
3. Group members can put up response documents regarding a topic.
   
4. Those main and response documents of a group are organized into an
   an ordered, accessible structure by the Notes' Discussion Application.
   
5. Response documents will be grouped under the corresponding main
   documents
   
6. Notes servers at different LAN sites exchange new data periodically
   to ensure identical databases at both LAN sites
   

• Group discussion can be carried out in a flexible way. Group members
  can participate at their own convenient time. This avoid the trouble
  of finding a meeting time when all group members are free.
  
• Support asynchronous group work in different locations.
  
• Group members at different locations can join a group discussion.
  
• Group members at different part of the world can coordinate their work
  through the disscussion database.
  

Limitations

• Group authoring and meeting scheduler are not supported by the Lotus
  Notes. Since Lotus Notes does not support file locking. When users
  edit the same document at the same time, only the latest changes will
  be saved. For the same reason, Lotus Notes can not support meeting
  scheduler which also the file locking feature.
  
• Usage of Lotus Notes at more than one LAN sites is suitable only when
  storage cost is low and communication cost is high. Since communication
  between Notes servers is done occasionally, the communication line need
  not be occupied permanantly. The cut down of communication cost can
  justify the storing cost of keeping duplicate database at different
  LAN sites.
  
• Cooperative culture within the organization is required for effective
  usage. Group members do not keep their idea or information to themselves
  and participate in the discussion voluntarily.
  

1. Data conferencing product

   • allows users to work simultaneously on a shared whiteboard
     using the same applications
     

2. Video conferencing product

   • supports virtual meetings among multiple locations
     
   • conducts in the Notes environment
     
   • brings Notes information into the conference