Article ID: | iaor2000601 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 10 |
Issue: | 4 |
Start Page Number: | 359 |
End Page Number: | 383 |
Publication Date: | Sep 1998 |
Journal: | INFORMS Journal On Computing |
Authors: | Krishnan Ramayya, Bhargava Hemant K. |
Keywords: | computers, control |
The World Wide Web has already affected OR/MS work in a significant way, and holds great potential for changing the nature of OR/MS products and the OR/MS software economy. Web technologies are relevant to OR/MS work in two ways. First, the Web is a multimedia communication system. Originally based on an information pull model, it is – critically for OR/MS – being extended for information push as well. Second, it is a large distributed computing environment in which OR/MS products – interactive computational applications – can be made available, and interacted with, over a global network. Enabling technologies for Web-based execution of OR/MS applications are classified into those involving client-side execution and server-side execution. Methods for combining multiple client-side and server-side technologies are critical to OR/MS's use of these technologies. These methods, and various emerging technologies for developing computational applications, give the OR/MS worker a rich armament for building Web-based versions of conventional applications. They also enable a new class of distributed applications working on real-time data. Web technologies are expected to encourage the development of OR/MS products as specialized component applications that can be bundled to solve real-world problems. Effective exploitation, for OR/MS purposes, of these technological innovations will also require initiatives, changes, and greater involvement by OR/MS organizations.