Digital Equipment Corp. AltaVista Forum 98
 Digital took serious ingenuity and applied it liberally to AltaVista Forum 98. A breeze to install, AltaVista Forum 98 uses either IIS or Netscape as the Web server and supports NT and Unix platforms. With only a small amount of configuration on the Web server, we were up and running in 30 minutes. AltaVista Forum 98 offers a bounty of thoughtful applications including calendar, discussion and document forums, e-mail, newspaper, links, chat and polling--all ready to use, right out of the box. Plus, the product is easily modifiable using TCL (Tool Command Language) and the included AltaVista Forum SDK.
AltaVista Forum 98 features the most active e-mail int
erface of all the products we tested. Any type of change or activity in any of the areas that the user is tracking is recorded in the message box. Changes to appointments, new documents posted in forums and meeting notices are all displayed. Some may find this area a bit cluttered, but we used AltaVista Forum 98's filtering rules to automatically file or delete selected messages before they were visible in the message box.
When we last reviewed this product, we were impressed with AltaVista 2.0's architecture (see "Intranet-Based Groupware," www.NetworkComputing.com/714/714f1.html). It didn't get in the way of performing work, but we wished Digital had put more effort into performance, provided offline Web browsing and improved security through the use of a user logout feature. A year and a half later, we were delighted to discover that the product still facilitates, rather than hampers, group efforts by providing easy and intuitive views and tools. Performance has improved dramatically; we had no problems
uploading files from several users simultaneously.
Also new to this release is the clever Internet briefcase feature, which lets you store discussion and document sharing folders on a Windows95 or NT laptop for offline viewing. The added List Unseen feature shows you new documents and discussion topics that have been added to forums you are tracking. And AltaVista Forum 98 now includes a chat server and enhanced search capabilities that include wild-card and cross-forum searches.
The user logout feature has been implemented on the Summit, the first screen you'll encounter, but not on the My Vista or subsequent application screens. We're still hoping Digital will implement user logout on all screens, as TeamWARE and WebTop do, to protect team members from unwanted prying eyes. The only solution now is to go back to the Summit screen to log out or to terminate the browser session--both fairly impractical solutions.
Web-based and hyperlink driven, AltaVista Forum 98 administration includes tools to eff
iciently manage the application. And since users can register themselves, the truly time-consuming part is eliminated. Not included, however, is the ability to generate or view usage statistics, a feature involv and InTandem provide. This lets the administrator know who is using the various applications and how many hits the server is incurring--information useful for system planning and trend analysis.
Self-Service Teaming
AltaVista Forum 98's registration wizard gets new users up and collaborating instantly. All we had to supply was a user name and password, plus any contact information. After logging on for the first time, we had access to all the applications and tools for which we had permission.
AltaVista Forum 98 features very robust access-control and group-permission capabilities. The program lets you set up a team or an access-control area. Typically, a team is a small, self-governing group. In contrast, an access-control area is for teams larger than 40 members, for example, with more
control over permissions, such as read and write access to specified applications. AltaVista Forum 98 lets you control who can view your calendar and make changes to files in your forums. It lets you easily create new groups with customizable access controls. You can control access by groups to the calendar, private or public chat rooms and meetings.
The Summit screen is the user logon and registration area and can be customized by the administrator. Views of the organization's public discussion and document forums are included as well as search, find people, list teams and List Unseen utilities. When you log in, your Summit screen has all of these areas, plus a view of your teams and a button to take you directly to the My Vista area, the personalized interface to AltaVista Forum 98. This area lists all the applications and tools available. From the drop-down tools menu, it was simple to add or remove forums, links and folders and to change our preferences for display and message alert.
We created a t
eam by simply clicking on the "Add Team" icon on the teams page. Here we selected which team applications the members would be able to use, such as discussions and documents, team calendar, newspaper and chat. Within the team area, we were able to send mail to the entire team with just one click, list all team members and view the team area's properties. New members were notified that they were now on the team via e-mail. AltaVista Forum 98 supports standard SMTP and Microsoft Exchange for messaging.
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