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"I'm sorry, all we put on laptops is basic office automation tools and a Web browser."

"A Web browser? Never mind, that's all we need."

The constant buzz of new applications makes supporting users more difficult than ever. Installing client software is a nightmare, and automated software d istribution is a catastrophic failure. Simply updating bloated, customized client code isn't enough. It takes time to resolve the unexpected problems that occur when application "A" needs component "X" and application "B" needs component "X version 2." This problem has to be solved before our support infrastructures collapse , if they haven't already.

Solution No. 1: Don't distribute; publish. Rather than distributing applications that interact with the user, send the application interface to the browser. Call it interface publishing. With interface publishing, applications send text, inline graphics, style codes and little applications to a Web browser, which is universal and cross-platform. The latest browsers are extensible, with JavaScript and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 3.2 support, making them more than simple page viewers; they can make fairly good application hosting engines.

Solution No. 2: Go with tradition. Install Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) news readers for threaded discussions and file sharing and keep the Web browser for information access. NNTP was built for message threading, and some readers can even work off-line. News articles can be replicated among servers. This approach has been around for many years, but there are reasons why it hasn't caught on in the corporate wor ld. Frequently the interface is ugly, feature-poor and cumbersome, especially when handling files. News administration has left many a novice dumbfounded. Creating new groups and managing security is hard. You can't move fast enough to support dynamic groups.

Solution No. 3: Wait for your groupware to grow a browser crust. Interfaces are starting to appear, but it's early yet. Lotus Development Corp. has Domino for Notes, and Novell has a Web interface for GroupWise 4. Microsoft Corp. is allowing a select few to peek at its Web Se rvice, but it's far from full-featured. And Attachmate Corp. has announced OpenMind Web. Even if these products do manage to deliver, there still is a fit for ad hoc collaborative solutions that cross proprietary borders.

There are, of course, limits to the browser interface. You can't drag and drop to rearrange your desktop. Right mouse-click behavior can't be customized. Button bars can't be defined on the fly. Because information browsing is a fundamentally diffe rent activity from most applications, there may be a little confusion. In fact, some Web-based applications can be broken or violate security when users use the "Back" button to retrace steps, which is a frequent occurrence when browsing. In an application context, a server can lose track of what you're doing. Trace back five screens and re-post a different file to a forum, and who knows what may happen?

As with most problems, there are workarounds: Provide an application-ready browser installation separate from the one used for surfing. Disable button/toolbars, location indicators and so forth. Even better, a good JavaScript-enabled application will open a window with the right attributes for you on the fly.

By itself, HTML provides a barely capable forms interface and relies on the server for most data checking. It's annoying to submit a form with 25 fields, only to get an error message that reads "incomplete data" when you hit the "Submit" button. JavaScript helps solve these problems by embedding little routines right in the text stream.

The people who use the tool are much more important than the tool itself. Successful groupware deployments need the right people--those who not only will accept the tool, but also embrace it. The workgroups themselves need to be able to make decisions on their own, so a relatively flat organizational model helps. Teams should be able to come and go, with access and security defined by team leaders. Finally, the software must be invisible--so intuitively obvious that people don't even notice it. Rule No. 1: Get the tool out of the way of the work.

By exclusively using a browser client, Digital Equipment Corp.'s AltaVista Forum and Radnet's WebShare Server solve many problems with getting groups to communicate. You don't have to touch the user's desktop, assuming he or she has the latest browser. There should be no more worries about users with differing software and platform standards. In addition, access control can be managed by team constituents and users c an self-register or be anonymous.