IBM works on next-gen Web collaboration

22.10.2008
IBM is working on a Web-conferencing platform dubbed OpusUna, which offers all participants the ability to collaborate using the same Web pages and features audio and video.

The AJAX-based technology was discussed by IBM officials during a briefing at the in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday. "Really, what we're looking at is how I extend the whole concept of AJAX to allow multiple-user interactions," said David Boloker, CTO in the IBM Emerging Internet Technology Software Group.

"It's all about a next-generation collaboration capability where you're really looking at how people interact with one another in a very different way," Boloker said.

OpusUna enables participants to collaborate and communicate from within the same browser space, incorporating widgets, audio, and video cameras to display themselves on the screen. IBM envisions, for example, collaboration on patient care via sharing of medical images. Financial traders also could collaborate from around the world.

The difference between OpusUna and other collaboration platforms is with OpusUna, all participants can contribute content as opposed to having one person serving as a presenter, IBM said. Cooperative meetings can be held.

The OpusUna software, which IBM has deployed on a Linux system, pulls together the various parts of a collaboration. It leverages HTML, JavaScript, and CSS; Flash and Silverlight content could be brought in via a wrapped widget. IBM is currently working with the Safari browser, but plans call for extending the software to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox in the first quarter of 2009