REENGINEERING THE DESK-TOP - TAKING THE KNOWLEDGE-BASE TO THE USER TOSUPPORT EDUCATION AND CITY COMMUNITIES

IF-based videoconferencing is now at a state of development and availa bility that users can easily experiment with the technology from their place of work - at their desktop. Within education support and city i nformation service environments there is growing opportunity and deman d to exploit these new forms of working. In this paper we address two initiatives within Manchester that reflect this change. Firstly, the C ity of Manchester has an economic strategy based on the use of telemat ics throughout the city community and, in association with the G-MING Metropolitan Area Network, is pursuing an integrated programme of city information service development within the framework of the pan-Europ ean initiative Infocities. Secondly, the G-MING Applications Programme (GAP) has been set up to provide a support framework within which app lications and services can be developed across the university campus a nd between institutions over G-MING. The paper presents experiences in delivering services to the desktop both across Internet and within ci ty and education communities. We highlight some of benefits and proble ms of flying to serve a wide variety of audiences and identify user re actions and lessons learned. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.