Documents and the Net

Larry Masinter

PARC/ISTL

November 2, 1995

Outline of talk

• What is document management
• Assumptions about the net
• Document management on the net

Four kinds of applications

What is Document Management

Many components:

• Authoring & acquisition
• Information access, text retrieval
• Library services
• Workflow

Growing market for products and services for workgroups and enterprises

Assumptions about the Net

• One network
• Global authentication
• Secure communication
• Copyright management
• Reliable payment

Four Reasons to Manage Documents

• Document as Memory
• Document as Process
• Document for Product
• Document as Product

Document as Memory: Knowledge workers

• Law office:
  • track correspondence, previous work
• Product organization:

• manage database of customer complaints

• Marketing department:

• competitive profiles

Document as Memory: Opportunities

• Customer feedback, discussion
  • support forums allow customers to post questions and have answers appear publicly.
• Distributed workgroups
  • distributed review committee

• virtual corporations
• trade associations

• conference review 

Organizational boundaries blur... Distributed workgroups

Document as Process: Managing work

• Insurance company
  • claims processing
• Financial services
  • loan approvals

• Government offices
  • permits, claims, approvals

• Commercial organizations
  • order entry, delivery, and collection.

Opportunities: Move process outside organization

• Order entry: Buying a pizza.
• Order entry: Reserve a hotel room
• Order tracking: FedEx

In general, this works when the company can merge the Internet interface with the company's own processes.

Document for Product: Manufacturing and Service

• Aerospace
  • Every plane is different: repair, specifications
• Pharmaceuticals
  • New Drug Applications

• Financial services firm
  • fact sheets about investments

• Software
  • documentation

Documents for Product: Opportunities

• Product data sheets
  • semiconductors, plastics or clothing.
• Product manuals

• • Novell  software documentation

• Construction

• • VRML rendering

Direct access by customers, communication with suppliers

Document as Product: Publishers and Education

• Entertainment
• Textbooks
• Document assembly
• Just-in-time production
• Course pack Publishers have a special privilege in electronic commerce

Opportunities

• Promotion
  • information about movies, sample chapters
• Order entry
  • bookstore on the net

• Distribution
  • document over the net to point of need

• Delivery
  • Consumer purchase and take delivery online

Conclusions

• Taking "Document Management" beyond the enterprise
• Some opportunities need not wait for technical advances
• Net is changing every kind of 'document' business.