Managing multi-party documents in a network computing environment

✍ Scribed by Seng-Cho T. Chou

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 66 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0644
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-024x(1998100)28:12<1315::aid-spe205>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

A Multi-Party Document (MPD) is one that contains multiple parts intended for multiple recipients, in that each recipient does not necessarily need to know the existence, and therefore the corresponding content, of the other parts of the document intended for other recipients. MPDs pose new requirements, namely, transparency and security, on the underlying system. Equipping the system with MPD supports will relieve user burdens and enhance the security measures of the system in protecting the integrity and privacy of document contents. This paper reviews some traditional and current document management approaches and their shortcomings with respect to the stated requirements, and proposes extensions to HTML, the most popular open document standard, with MPD supports for practical reasons. The main implementation issues, including dynamic document construction and secured document transmission and repository, are also discussed. MPD finds many applications in our daily life, especially in the ever growing Internet and Intranet environments. The extension needed to the underling system is straightforward, while the pay-off can be substantial.