3.3.9.6 Communication
As discussed in the Section 2.5, communication and collaborative
working is very important. The WWW per se (HTML, HTTP, URL) does not provide
any communication tools, but since nearly every browser is equipped with
email and Usenet newsgroup software, it can be used for private
communication and for group discussion. The integration of Java applets into
WWW documents has opened the door for WWW communication tools. Since applets
can communicate with each other
, synchronous
communication tools can be integrated into WWW documents. This includes not
only chat tools, but also shared white boards and other shared
applications. Of course, such products have been on the market for some
time, but users have never been able to use them without any installation
procedure.
