Enabling Technology for Virtual Office Applications

Table of Contents

Introduction

• visions of the future that will be enabled by the integration of Internet, World Wide Web, Object, Middleware, and Database technologies ("Visions: Application and Technology Drivers")
• plans for, and experiences with, using VO technology in our own operations ("Virtual Office White Paper", "Electronic Support for Collaboration & Decision Making in OBJS")
• a collection of scenarios describing the use of VO capabilities in a wide range of military and civilian applications ("Virtual Office Scenarios")

Basic Enablers

• basic elements of a common operating environment, including key general-purpose applications (email, editors, spreadsheet, etc.), printers, Internet provider (possibly with ISDN or other high-speed connection); the local hardware/software environment would be tailored to the requirements of the individuals' work.
• communications via phone, answering machine, FAX; audio conferencing for meetings
• communication via email, and transfer of documents or other types of "static" information (e.g., map data, still images); ideally, it must be possible to send/receive arbitrary types of data, and incorporate this data into work products or electronic conferences
• communications via desktop videoconferencing, including the ability to share information (such as a whiteboard, and other documents or information under discussion) during the conference
• shared information space support, such as a shared file system or database (in the case of a database, this would need to be one capable of holding documents and other classes of data that the office works with; for example, a publishing office would need to be able to store layouts and images); ideally, this would also support flexible movement of data (email, documents, other objects) between the shared office environment and laptop computers to support mobile computing. Such shared information would include:
• work products
• shared statements of work, plans, schedules, progress reports
• on-line libraries
• applications
• backup and recovery support
• change management services for documents and other data being created or manipulated by more than one person (version control, change annotations, checkout/checkin for static data; facilities for controlling who manipulates the whiteboard); this might include database-like (atomic) transaction support for some classes of data.
• electronic scheduling and calendars
• electronic versions of office and other forms (expense reports, insurance forms, etc.)
• licensing services (e.g., for software, or for services subscribed to by the office)
• digital signatures for signing internal memoranda, checks, timesheets, reports, etc., as well as for reaching agreements with consultants, etc., and having the other party accept the signature
• secure communication via firewalls, and secure message traffic with outside parties (vendors, consultants, customers) and between specified individuals within the firewalls
• secure data (either within the shared information space, or using separate files/databases), e.g., to protect personnel and financial data, isolate projects, protect proprietary information
• electronic commerce capabilities (e.g., secure credit card transactions, electronic banking)
• workflow and other support for developing and implementing various distributed office procedures and for handling non-routine operations, e.g.,
• remote inspection (e.g., for auditing purposes)
• hiring consultants or other contractors
• timesheet submission and processing
• hiring new employees and losing old ones
• directory and search services, together with information filtering services
• access to other online content providers, together with wrapper and other technology that allows the capture of useful information and its integration into work products
• the above facilities offered within a uniform environment ("common look and feel" plus "consistent semantics")

Advanced Enablers

Architecture-Related Enablers

• a scaleable, open architecture
• based on a suite of widely adopted commercial technologies and standards
• having the characteristics described in Table 1, "Desirable Properties of Software Architectures", below
• interoperability
• among a wide variety of object models and data types
• between currently diverse systems (e.g., between sensors and C4I systems in military applications)
• wrappers, mediators, object adapters, bridge components for use where necessary
• data has associated metadata (data describing data) to allow data from diverse sources to be merged or transformed (e.g., registration of spatial data to a common coordinate system)
• standards for key data types (including metadata) and formats
• flexible, rapid application development
• "plug and play" dynamic configuration of hardware and software components that meet specific applications requirements
• flexible location and size of components; e.g., ability to dynamically move objects between platforms, to adjust for platform size or communication constraints, without changing overall system function
• self-mobile objects to support "agent" technology
• ability to quickly and easily modify and upgrade individual components, and distribute changed components (or the changes themselves) to locations where they are needed
• support for multiple development languages, including scripting languages
• survivable, with system and component resilience to failures, loss of components or degradation of component capabilities, errors, environmental conditions, and information warfare attacks
• "non-stop operation"; e.g., modifications/upgrades to system configuration or individual components should be possible without disrupting normal operations
• support demanding performance requirements
• support for hard real-time processing requirements
• global or decentralized load balancing; dynamically distribute load among replicated resources according to demand and transient network conditions
• decisions made dynamically on quality of service observations
• advanced networking and related technologies (e.g., ATM)
• provide automatic dynamic bandwidth allocation and advanced services within available bandwidth; applications must be capable of taking advantage of changes in available bandwidth (and be capable of operating in situations where bandwidth is degraded)
• ability to integrate different communication channels as parts of the same interaction, and optimize usage of those channels based on their characteristics; (e.g., ask for a large piece of data via a low-bandwidth "direct" message, and have it delivered via a high-bandwidth broadcast)
• "smart caching" to avoid unnecessary communications
• advanced session control and transaction mechanisms based on communication semantics
• flexible, modular security mechanisms, including
• support for handling information at multiple security levels (e.g., in a military operation, automatic data sanitization to allow release of US-only information to coalition partners; in civilian applications, similar capabilities to differentiate data releasable to partners in specific business relationships)
• user/software authentication, authorization, and access controls
• mobile objects that migrate between clients that do not trust each other
• safe mechanisms for executing untrusted code, scripts
• support for trusted path between user and code
• mediation of access to different name spaces
• accounting mechanisms that can stop software that exceeds its resources

Other Technology Enablers

• advanced shared information space support
• supports all required data/object types
• arbitrary relationships, "webs" among instances
• arbitrary annotations "attached" to instances
• conventional database and advanced transaction support to support consistency and reliability requirements during concurrent access
• flexible and powerful search facilities
• support searching on all types of data (including spatial and temporal search criteria, and partial matches)
• support for ranking responses according to best-fit and other criteria, or otherwise organizing responses according to user requirements
• intelligent agents for seeking / gathering information, monitoring processes
• notification mechanisms
• condition monitoring in systems or information space, with alerts sent to appropriate individuals or systems when conditions are satisfied
• filtering mechanisms to allow users and systems to tailor the data they receive to that which is useful to them
• automatic data entry mechanisms (to reduce/eliminate difficulty of getting information into systems), e.g.:
• automatic parsing and interpretation of text messages
• electronic tags or transponders on equipment, shipments, and personnel provide or can report location and status information
• non-traditional I/O mechanisms (e.g., voice input to or actuation of systems, and voice or other audio representation of output data, as in some aircraft systems)
• highly portable devices (satellite dishes, laptops, sensors) that enable communications to be maintained with smaller units (sometimes down to the vehicle or individual), and enable those units to be tracked and status reported (e.g., automatically)
• a rich suite of specialized tools, e.g.,
• simulation tools
• models
• planning tools
• knowledge-based and other tools for situation assessment and course of action analysis and recommendations
• a rich suite of presentation mechanisms, e.g.,
• scaleable map displays
• dynamic distributive overlays
• interactive graphics
• three-dimensional terrain visualization and "fly through" capabilities
• support for mediated collaboration (enhances umediated collaboration environments by imposing specific structure, rules, or protocols on interactions)

Conclusion