jdm1@eds1.UUCP (Jon McCown) (09/28/89)
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: >One of the mo)ul things a computer can do for an organisation >around papers, you pass around floppy disks. >Even with a network, the individual computers are single-tasking... a user >has to back out of whatever they're doing to send electronic mail. And users >have no access to each others' files, either because of network limitations >(the network will only work in server *or* client mode on a given box), or >because of administrative ones (no or inadequate security). >An office is inherently a multi-user environment. Grafting the software >on top of a bunch of single-user systems still leaves every man an island. I agree with Peter that hordes of PCs (networked or not) are a non-optimal means of improving knowledge-worker productivity. While the typical atypical (and hopefully interesting) approach to the automation of knowledge workers. For the past five years I have been working on an implementation aimed at addressing these same issues, as well as increasing the productivity of knowledge workers. For the record I am _not_ an EDS employee, but a civilian director of an EDS contract with the PA Senate. If this sounds like 'horn tooting' please rest assured that things are not perfect by any means and a great deal of work remains to be done. At present the overall configuration is some 32 LANs connected by a WAN, with nearly 150 workstations (and still growing) Our 32 office LANs are composed of Convergent Technologies NGENS (80x86) with 1-4 MB of memory each, running CTOS or CTOS VM OS. CT systems are about the size of a large lunch box, and have RS-422 LAN, RS-232 and Centronics ports built in, as well as an expansion bus for 'snapping on' (literally) hard disk, tape, voice processor, and/or comm processor modules. (these modules also look a lot like lunch boxes :-) A typical office lan consists of a 'master' station with an 80MB SCSI drive, tape backup, 4-15 diskless workstations, and a couple of printers. PCs can be added to the LAN (if you must :-) and share the print and disk resources of the master. Each user station has its own memory and CPU, but relies on a message passing type of remote request routing for disk and print access, as well as access to comm/db servers on the 'master' station. The OS is multi-tasking/processing, and a context switching user interface allows users to run multiple applications. CTOS VM runs in protected mode, with option of running 'virtual PCs' on the 386 based CPUs. For those familiar with QNX, there is some conceptual similarity. Requests for services 'known to exist' but not locally serviceable are routed to the master; routing parameters can also be configured to access a remote server (master) across the WAN. The built in LAN capability has allowed us to structure office installations such that work-sharing was possible from the very beginning(1982). (we didn't have to 'break' a bunch of lone ranger PC types into good natured LANers) Information and resource sharing were major factors in our design. The WAN is X.25 based, connecting some 30 office LANS to host gateways and electronic mail service. (the mail system is proprietary with a built in user interface-- I am told that an SMTP gateway is available). At present we are using a private PSN by Memotec, although using public X.25 service is the usual mode of doing extended-WAN configurations with CT equipment. A secondary factor in inproving interaction between users is the standard- ization of software. In all cases we utilize CT's office automation suite which consists of a high end word processing package with moderate-to-good desktop publishing capilities, a lotus 1-2-3 clone, Multiplan, a simple records data base, a charting/drawing package and 3270 emulation. Since all of the software is the same, interoperability and training are 'non- issues'. (it comes in any color so long as you want black). Persons with 'especial' computing needs get PCs and outside training. -*- The early returns are quite good. Automation of the Communications/PR Policy Research, Legal Staff, and research analysts have gone quite well. Email has caught on well, and is used as a means of speeding revision cycles on documents. Although it may seem authoritarian, I would posit that a direction for cultivating a healthy 'knowledge-worker' population is to contain the 'lone rangers' long enough to develop some well thought out standards. I guess Well Thought Out is difficult to define also :-) - JDMC -- J.D. McCown - RCSG Director - Senate of Pennsylvania psuvax1!eds1!jdm1 (this space intentionally "Your life or your lupins!" jdm1@eds1.eds.com filled with this text) - Dennis Moore