MITRE Releases New Collaborative Software

Bedford, Massachusetts, March 31, 1999 — The MITRE Corporation announced today that it is making its Collaborative Virtual Workspace (CVW) software available on an open source (license) basis. MITRE is an independent, not-for profit company working in the public interest that provides technical support to the government.

The new software and source code (which can be downloaded) can be found at cvw.mitre.org.

CVW introduces a whole new way of thinking about collaboration. Lucy Deus, Principal Engineer in MITRE's Collaborative Infrastructure and Applications Group, puts it this way: "Imagine being able to instantly meet and converse, collaborate and share information with your co-workers, regardless of where you're located. All each person needs is a computer and a connection to the Internet."

The CVW environment takes virtual meetings one step further. It enables virtual co-location among users through a virtual "building" that contains a collection of persistent "rooms," each incorporating people, information, and tools appropriate to a task, operation, or service.

MITRE created and developed the CVW software several years ago as part of its research program. It is being used by several government agencies to refine collaborative processes within and across their organizations. Its many applications include organizational interactions, operations management, distance learning, and crisis management.

According to MITRE Vice President and Chief Technology Officer David Lehman, this open source software release is in keeping with the way the company does business:

"We decided to release CVW as an open source research project so that we can share our knowledge of collaboration with others," Lehman said. "We hope academia and industry will add to this knowledge and apply what we've learned to further the state of the art."

CVW technology offers a number of new capabilities in virtual collaboration, Deus explained:

"It uses Internet technology to provide a seamless environment with a suite of collaboration tools. People can communicate via text chat and audio/video conferencing. They can share and edit information from virtual file cabinets, mark up shared whiteboards, and even dynamically share pointers to web sites on the Internet. All of this happens within a persistent virtual building that provides the ability to retain continuity throughout the collaboration process. CVW is exciting. It's true virtual co-location. It provides an entirely new way of doing business."

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