The Internet: A New Dimension?

By Alan Bohnhoff

'Person to Person, part of IBM's OS/2 Warp BonusPak, is a great way to communicate instantly. This article describes this new dimension of personal interaction.'

Everybody is talking about the Internet, even the politicians! These are exciting times. The wealth of resources available on the net today is incredible and the amount of information being added is exploding. The reach of the Internet is also astounding. Over 25 million people have Internet IDs, and this number seems to be increasing exponentially. In fact, an Internet ID is the coolest information you can add to your business card or letterhead!

But few Internet users realize that a huge shift in Internet use is starting to occur. In fact, you may already own IBM products that are catalysts of this change. The Internet is moving toward a new dimension. Today, most people use the Internet for either e-mail or data gathering. Let's take a look at these two "dimensions" of Internet usage. . . then we'll gaze into the "new dimension."

The E-Mail Dimension
Mail was a very innovative concept. Dating back to the time of the pharaohs, mail has been keeping people "in touch" with each other for millenia. In its latest technological form, electronic mail (or e-mail) is a fast and effective way to communicate. People now use the Internet as a huge e-mail system. With e-mail on the Internet, you are within reach of almost anyone on the planet.

But with all its technology, e-mail still retains one characteristic that limits its effectiveness--the mail has to be picked up and opened by recipients. This works well if the recipients check their mailboxes regularly. But short or long, information languishes while in the mailbox. That's OK for junk mail and some other types of low priority information, but more often than not, you'd like the information to be received instantly. That's why the telephone has become so indispensable--it gets the message there instantly. You actually connect (audibly at least) with the person who answers (unless of course, you are subjected to that other kind of technologically-advanced mail: voice mail)!

So e-mail is a very effective way to use the Internet and is a primary factor in the Internet's phenomenal growth. But its shortcomings beg for something more. . . a new dimension.

The Data Gathering Dimension
Another aspect of the Internet that has most captured peoples' imaginations is the idea of information gathering or surfing. There are millions of computers on the Internet containing interesting information, just waiting for someone to find it. These server machines are placed there by their owners to supply surfers with some information that  advances the owner's cause--from selling products to dispensing weather data in the form  of up-to-the-minute weather satellite pictures. If you let your imagination wander, you can visualize some of the things that you might do with such technology. What has been done far surpasses our imaginations. And that's the excitement (and sometimes the addiction) that is behind this use of the Internet. Even the terms sound interesting--Gopher, World-Wide Web, Veronica.

When you, er, "net it out," this server/data gathering use of the Internet is akin to the use of the lowly filing cabinet! Someone deposits information in an organized fashion, then someone else comes along and takes it out. While useful, it has its limitations. Like e-mail, the information remains where it was deposited until someone does something to access it. Further, the information on the server is not addressed to anyone. It is just there. Very impersonal. The person who needs the information must be interested and patient enough to first find it, then retrieve it.

This technological "hide and seek" can be fun--even exciting at times. But data gathering doesn't fit the bill when you want to get information to another person quickly or interactively. Again, the shortcomings of the information server beg for. . . a new dimension.

The Personal Interaction Dimension
Imagine a whole new dimension. A more personal dimension where it's easy to. ..

. . . share almost any type of information instantly with another person instead of a mailbox or server

. . . eliminate the frustrating delays of e-mail and servers

. . . directly connect the person who needs information with the person who has information without worrying about data formats or compatible applications

. . . reach almost any person on earth, no matter where. ..

Sound too good to be true? It's not. In fact, you may already have this capability without even knowing it. With the tools contained in the OS/2 Warp BonusPak, you really can "boldly go where no man has gone before" in your use of the Internet--into a new dimension of personal interaction.

This new way of using the Internet is called desktop conferencing. What comes to mind when you hear "desktop conferencing"? Do you think of "videoconferencing"? If so, that's unfortunate. The two are not the same. Videoconferencing is only one form of desktop conferencing. And everyone knows that video technology on computers is still expensive. On top of that, it is impossible to pass quality video over regular telephone lines. So to videoconference, you need special (read expensive) communication lines. All this leads people to think that conferencing from their desktops is still a dream.

But much of the power of desktop conferencing is available today to the average computer user, totally apart from expensive video technology. How does it work?

Let's use our imaginations again. This time, imagine that you're talking with a colleague or customer on the phone. During the conversation, you discover that your customer needs to see the information that is on your computer screen. Perhaps it's a spreadsheet, or a document, or a photo of your yacht (remember, we're imagining!). Wouldn't it be nice to be able to fax your screen to your customer's computer immediately, without worrying about where you are, or where your customer is, or what type of computer either of you is using? And wouldn't it be nice if you could have this super-fax capability without buying anything?

Well, if you have OS/2 Warp, you can do what you just imagined! The tools you need are IBM Person to Person (P2P) for OS/2 and the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2. Both are included in the OS/2 Warp BonusPak. The IBM Internet Connection is a slick and painless way to connect to the Internet and P2P is the right tool to interactively share your information. (And, of course, OS/2 Warp is the operating system of choice for the discriminating computer user!)

Think back. The scenario you imagined starts the way office communication usually starts--with a phone call. And often during our conversations, we end up needing to show the other person something that we can't readily put into words. Nor can the other person readily visualize it. In such cases we usually turn to the fax machine or send the data using an overnight mail service. And then we wait. . ..

Now there's a better, faster alternative. By using Person to Person, you can stay on the phone in front of your computer and share the information directly and immediately. And if you happen to be on a conference call with more than one other person, you can add everyone (up to eight people) into your Person to Person conference.

Getting Started
To use Person to Person to share information over the Internet, follow this simple procedure:
 * 1) Each party dials in to the Internet using the IBM Internet Connection (click on  Superhighway group, then Internet Connection icon, then Dialer icon).
 * 2) Each party starts Person to Person (click on P2P Group, then Call Manager icon  shown in Figure 1).  The first time through, you'll have to configure transmission  control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) using the Call Manager View pull-down  menu.
 * 3) The person placing the call adds the other party (or parties) to his P2P Address Book  (click on the Address Book icon, use Edit to add a person, specifying the other  persons internet protocol [IP] address [you'll find that in the Dialer log] using the  Set button).
 * 4) Place the call (choose the other person's name in P2P Address Book, choose  Chalkboard checkbox, and click on the Call button).
 * 5) Mirror the window containing the information you want to share into the P2P  Chalkboard (use the Mirror pull-down menu in Chalkboard).

Figure 1. P2P Icon Group



Figure 2. P2P Chalkboard Showing a Medical Imaging Application Voila! The other person sees exactly what you see on your screen.

If the person with whom you want to share information happens to be on your local area network (LAN), or is part of a network that is "bridged" to your LAN, you can use your internal network rather than the Internet to make the connection. The above process is essentially the same, just identify the other person's network address instead of the Internet (IP) address, in the P2P Address Book.

If you haven't experienced this new dimension for using the Internet, try it today. You probably already have everything you need, and you'll be surprised just how personal the Internet can be!