Vision

The developments in the field of IT described in this chapter all contribute to the development of the Information Revolution and the development of collaborative information systems in companies.

The development of user interfaces creates the possibility to present and use interactive multimedia documents and virtual reality objects.
The still growing processing capacity of computers and the increasing storage capacity of external media allows for the presentation, editing and storage of such large digital objects. Glass fibre and ATM are the basic technologies for the development of a world-wide network in the coming years - the Digital Highway - which enables the transmission of large digital objects. Companies will consequently be forming large networks of computers, internal and external, consisting of workstations for the employees and supporting computers for server tasks. The PCs, and later on the home systems of private individuals will also be connected to this network. People will also have mobile systems that are connected to the Digital Highway via mobile communication. This computer network will form the basis for business and consumer applications. The network has an enormous parallel capacity for presenting, processing, storing and transmitting electronic data objects.
Currently, there is only one important barrier in the way of these developments. There are no standards with respect to the architecture of the business and consumer applications. It is of great importance to use the principles of object orientation and the Collaborative Object Architecture as a basis for world-wide standards on the architecture of data objects.
Standards for data objects that serve as software components in business applications, allow for a fast and flexible development and for the world-wide communication between the applications of companies and private individuals. This stimulates the development of collaborative information systems that support interorganisations of companies and private individuals.
Standards with respect to multimedia documents and virtual reality objects create room for the world-wide production and consumption of all kinds of new immaterial products. It is this production and consumption of immaterial products that will be the driving force behind the Information Revolution.