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Practical Internet Groupware (Paperback)

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4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Drawing on the wealth of experience he accumulated developing internal and external collaboration solutions for BYTE magazine, author Jon Udell provides a thorough guide to building networked tools for collaboration. Unlike many books that are tied to a given language or protocol, Practical Internet Groupware delivers useful code examples in several languages, including Perl (primary language), server-side Java, and XML. Protocols discussed include NNTP, IMAP, HTTP, POP3, and SMTP.

The first section covers general use and policies as they relate to groupware. Administrators and end users will benefit from the references to NNTP messages in Collabra and Outlook, scoped discussion groups, and packaging messages and discussion threads. Udell also includes many tips and usability pointers. When discussing how to build, index, and navigate a document database, he delineates ways to create rich navigation that incorporate topic-sensitive and sequential navigation using modular Perl examples.

Many of the solutions that are presented address custom software that implements open standards. One of the most powerful solutions discusses a lightweight, Perl-based local HTTP server, called dhttp. Creating, using, extending, and integrating this server are capably covered by the author, and it is convincingly presented as a flexible means of distributing information.

As a mark of distinction, the book approaches problems from multiple angles. With security as an example, the author discusses the implementation of encryption for dhttp and notes the legal issues surrounding the use of SSLeay. In essence, his example becomes an alternative way to implement a secure channel using the Blowfish encryption algorithm.

The book contains quite a bit of useful code, but like most (perhaps all) O'Reilly books, it does not include a companion CD-ROM. Appendix A discusses where to get the code and modules (primarily on the author's Web site), but receiving this high-quality source code on a well-organized CD-ROM would increase the value of the book.

For those interested in creating a document database and integrating it with HTTP and NNTP, this book provides the background, code, integration, and deployment information you will need. --John Keogh

Topics covered: Using groupware, policy, culture, and implementation; creating a collection of documents that can be used as a database (docbase); integrating docbases with a variety of servers, including NNTP and HTTP; security, authentication, and encryption; integration; creating a lightweight HTTP server; deploying INN, Microsoft NNTP service, and Netscape Collabra Server; indexing, navigating, and searching; IMAP, POP3, and SMTP. The source code is primarily in Perl, with some server-side Java and C++. XML and HTML are used for many examples, and using XML and XSL is also discussed. Appendices include information on where to get the code and modules that are presented in the book and Internet RFCs.

Product Description

This revolutionary book tells users, programmers, IS managers, and system administrators how to build Internet groupware applications that organize the casual and chaotic transmission of online information into useful, disciplined, and documented, data. It describes the tools and technologies for building and deploying groupware applications, design and usability issues that determine the success or failure of any groupware endeavor, and solutions that draw on the collaborative capabilities of Internet technologies like SMTP, NNTP, HTTP, and XML. In this book you'll learn how to:

Base groupware on standard Internet technologies (mail servers, news servers, and web servers)
Use simple server- and client-side scripts to automate creation, presentation, transmission, and search of electronic documents
Create a base of documents that contain semi-structured data representing much of the intellectual capital of an enterprise
Deploy these solutions in a way that scales from groups of a few collaborators to communities of thousands of users

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Product Details

Paperback: 497 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (November 15, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565925378
ISBN-13: 978-1565925373
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,881,085 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary, May 19, 2000

By	Steve Wainstead (Jackson Heights, NY United States) - See all my reviews

It's amazing how many capabilities there are in MS and Netscape suites (browser + mail reader + news reader) and how they work together. Using SMTP, HTTP and NNTP as the foundation, Udell gives us a vision for the future of online collaboration (even though WebDAV only get passing mention). If you are building an intranet, this is the second book you should read after Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. To build an intranet in the year 2000 without NNTP capability should be a crime.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An avant-garde proposition that foreshadow web 2.0, April 6, 2006

By	Waiyip Tung "tungwaiyip" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his book "Practical Internet Groupware", former BYTE magazine editor Jon Udell layout an architecture that links human minds into collaborative relationships. Base on his actual experience in building BYTE's intranet as well as the magazine's public online services, he gave his insight on the powerful use of Internet.

Among the many IT books I have read, this book stand out as sublime, even avant-garde. Got a question? Search the Internet, send a follow up email to folks you have never met. That's something many of us have probably done without much thinking. Yet Jon would step back and reflect on the dynamic that had happened. An ad-hoc workgroup was formed between him and several person on one particular task. The collaboration was unbounded by time, geography or corporate affiliation. He strived to grasp the subtle interactions and to facilitate this flow of information on the Internet.

People are lazy and do not like to learn or adapt to complex rules impose by computer systems. On the other hand simple rules and clever UI tweak can often make interactions spontaneous and effective. Use an appropriate subject for a message is one good example. The author discussed one of the oldest groupware on the Internet, the Usenet newsgroups. He termed it conferencing and explained why it is a better channel for some kind of interactions compare to email. Many of us who get caught in lengthy email debate would be delighted to know there are more effective way to conduct this kind of discussion. Indeed a seamless integration of web, email, newsgroup and a searchable document database are the components that make a formidable groupware application.

Unlike most IT books, he did not focus on any single platform, computer language or a technology. Whether it is a tool from Microsoft or its competitors, a freeware or a commercial product, he would use it if he see fits. Throughout the book are short, unglamorous, but nevertheless working code samples. Given I read this 6 years after its 1999 publishing date, many of the code or specific technologies are already considered obsoleted. Yet the insight that stem from these early system are just as relevant today. Think just what is the core component of web 2.0 technology? User participation!

Perhaps nothing reveal more about this book than its front cover. The 'practical' in the 'Practical Internet Groupware' means everything is derived from actual experience and real code rather than a theoretical discussion. Yet it is in small print while the 'Internet Groupware' is emphasize in the banner. That's because the code and the actual systems are just starting points that spawn the exploration of threads that link people into collaborative relationship. This is an immensely powerful Internet application we have yet to master.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent--A Must Buy for Internet Forum Managers, May 15, 2000

By	Anthony R. Thompson (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent book. When I first encountered it I wasn't really impressed by the title since I doubted someone could say anything new or interesting about Usenet. Sometime later, though, I read Tim O'Reilly's review in his "Ask Tim" column. Tim recommended it so highly that I picked it up the next time I hit the bookstore. I'm very glad I did because Jon Udell has done a great job of looking at modern groupware concepts and applications, while also giving intelligent treatment to the historical roots of groupware in systems like Usenet.

This isn't a book about Usenet, or Lotus Notes, or any specific groupware product. It is about building and maintining modern groupware systems, and it examines this topic from a variety of conceptual and practical angles. This book provides a lot of ideas--good ones. Many of the ideas are so wonderful because Jon always keeps an eye on the future, and provides advice toward ensuring that groupware systems use the best of current technology (e.g., XML) but still remain flexible for future developments. If you manage discussion forums of any kind, or are considering doing so, I recommend that you pick this book up.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A good overview, though nothing specific
This was a good read, though it was not as technical or as specific as I was hoping for. O'Reilly books are known problem-solvers, and this text was a good one for the beginner... Read more

Published on January 7, 2001 by Monica Israels

4.0 out of 5 stars a typical classic: have a vision, but too weird
it has a vision, and a good start. but too weird. The author seems like to use peculiar way and terminology to express easy and common practice. e.g. Read more

Published on February 14, 2000 by k1990

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical insights often overlooked
Jon's book is not typical. It does not provide the same old information about HTTP or HTML or NNTP. It provides a look at what he has learned about writing Internet applications... Read more

Published on February 9, 2000 by PDLogan

3.0 out of 5 stars See Jon Udell B.S.
Jon Udell's BYTE columns were always entertaining, and here he extends his columns (as it were) and B.S.'s at length. Read more

Published on February 7, 2000

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