Working together while working apart

Jets can fly across oceans and continents in just a few hours to bring far away colleagues face-to-face.

Special telecollaboration software, also dubbed JETS (JAVA-Enabled Telecollaboration System), might make the trip unnecessary. JETS makes interactive working meetings possible over networks or the Internet for users down-the-hall or around-the-world by allowing users to share images and programs on their screens and make modifications in real-time.

JETS is the brainchild of electrical-engineering professor Nicolas Georganas, the internationally renowned Director of the Multimedia Communications Research Lab at the University of Ottawa.

Prof. Nicolas Georganas

Prof. Georganas, has been recently awarded: the A.G.L. McNaughton Medal and Award for 1999-2000, the highest distinction of IEEE Canada; the Julian C. Smith Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada for 1999-2000 and the OCRI President's Award for the creation of the National Capital Institute of Telecommunications (NCIT).

"When I began working in multimedia communications in 1984 the term was unknown in Canada," says Prof . Georganas, an early pioneer in this fast growing field.

Multimedia communications encompasses online transmissions that combine communication media such as text, graphics, video and audio.

Prof. Georganas is a program leader with the TeleLearning Networks of Centres of Excellence, a federally-funded agency at the forefront of telelearning (online learning) research and application.

Designed in 1995, JETS is an interactive collaboration system that is compatible with any computer platform. JETS moves beyond standard videoconferencing capabilities to make it possible for people to work together at any distance on projects in real-time. Just like videoconferencing, JETS allows participants to see and talk to each other over networks or the Internet while seated at their computer terminals and only using their Web browser. Furthermore, JETS also brings an additional workplace on the screen, a whiteboard, on which applications can be shared online.

"The whiteboard allows for real-time sharing of images or applet programs, interactive PowerPoint presentations, online drawings, video and 3D digital models," Prof. Georganas explains.

Functioning as a fully equipped meeting space, JETS is an ideal business or training tool for interactive collaboration over networks or the Internet. JETS has diverse applications in fields as widespread as design, programming, business marketing and education.

Architects or engineers can work together on designs with colleagues in other cities. Bankers, real-estate agents or sales people can display a loan application, a neighbourhood map or a photo of a product to a client sitting at home before a screen. Professors, teachers, or trainers can run videos or simulations to educate students anywhere in the world in just about anything from how to perform open-heart surgery to flying an airplane.

JETS is a platform independent system that can be used on any operating system, requiring only a basic JAVA-enabled Web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. In contrast to Microsoft Net Meeting, which only plays Windows applications, JETS allows users to share programs across Windows, Mac and Unix platforms. JETS has already garnered international recognition and thousands of users have downloaded it.

Prof. Georganas has created a new version of JETS, called JETS 2000 that permits recording of collaborative sessions for later viewing.

"Using JETS 2000, colleagues who missed collaborative sessions can play back the recording with audio and video," Geroganas explains.

Currently, Prof. Georganas is developing a version of JETS for use on portable wireless devices such as PalmPilots.

by Michael Rappaport