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D. R. Green and S. D. King
under the fall control of the information provider. This can be achieved by allowing
the individual organisations to decide exactly what data and information they make
available over the Internet. The posting of information, and the way in which this
information is presented can also be controlled by the individual organisations.
However, this does not mean providing access to databases that contain sensitive or
confidential information.
Summary and Conclusions
The pilot information system briefly outlined above successfully illustrates one of a
number of different ways in which the Internet and its associated information browsers
can be used in a very simple, yet highly effective, way in the workplace to store,
structure, and deliver information to a wide range of users from many different
backgrounds. The networking technology and the browser interfaces are clearly ideal
as the basis to permit the development of an information system. The Internet browser
tools also provide one way to customise the WWW page interface for specific
applications, allowing users not only to freely access information in a very flexible, but
structured way, but also to focus on a specific task or set of tasks related to their area of
work. Much of the information required by such users is spatial and this can also be
included as part of the information resource. Careful design of the information
interface within the browser interface offers navigational tools which can be made as
flexible as the designer permits.
Information can be structured in both a flexible, but also semi-rigid way for a
particular application. In the case of the FEF Pilot Information System, the objective
has been to provide a detailed information resource for many different users, with
wide-ranging backgrounds who may wish to acquire information about the Firth of
Forth. To begin with the Internet offers a means to make such information available
electronically. The benefits this offers over the presentation of such information in a
traditional bound text form are: flexibility, delivery of images (colour), regular
updating, additional interaction, and so on. But the Internet also offers access to
information from a much wider range of sources. It also offers users possibilities to
communicate electronically with the FEF, either commenting on or In the future,
extensions to the HTML language, Javascript and the JAVA language will provide the
information system developer with an even more powerful construction toolbox to
design a customised navigational interface for the delivery of information. Such
developments will also permit the delivery of information in even more interesting and
dynamic ways providing the tools to, for example, deliver animated graphics, and
interactive maps, adding to the information resource. In this sense the FEF can gather
information for its own use far more easily.
D. R. Green and S. D. King
under the fall control of the information provider. This can be achieved by allowing
the individual organisations to decide exactly what data and information they make
available over the Internet. The posting of information, and the way in which this
information is presented can also be controlled by the individual organisations.
However, this does not mean providing access to databases that contain sensitive or
confidential information.
Summary and Conclusions
The pilot information system briefly outlined above successfully illustrates one of a
number of different ways in which the Internet and its associated information browsers
can be used in a very simple, yet highly effective, way in the workplace to store,
structure, and deliver information to a wide range of users from many different
backgrounds. The networking technology and the browser interfaces are clearly ideal
as the basis to permit the development of an information system. The Internet browser
tools also provide one way to customise the WWW page interface for specific
applications, allowing users not only to freely access information in a very flexible, but
structured way, but also to focus on a specific task or set of tasks related to their area of
work. Much of the information required by such users is spatial and this can also be
included as part of the information resource. Careful design of the information
interface within the browser interface offers navigational tools which can be made as
flexible as the designer permits.
Information can be structured in both a flexible, but also semi-rigid way for a
particular application. In the case of the FEF Pilot Information System, the objective
has been to provide a detailed information resource for many different users, with
wide-ranging backgrounds who may wish to acquire information about the Firth of
Forth. To begin with the Internet offers a means to make such information available
electronically. The benefits this offers over the presentation of such information in a
traditional bound text form are: flexibility, delivery of images (colour), regular
updating, additional interaction, and so on. But the Internet also offers access to
information from a much wider range of sources. It also offers users possibilities to
communicate electronically with the FEF, either commenting on or In the future,
extensions to the HTML language, Javascript and the JAVA language will provide the
information system developer with an even more powerful construction toolbox to
design a customised navigational interface for the delivery of information. Such
developments will also permit the delivery of information in even more interesting and
dynamic ways providing the tools to, for example, deliver animated graphics, and
interactive maps, adding to the information resource. In this sense the FEF can gather
information for its own use far more easily.