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We argue that, though the net result is an actual incidence on facilities formerly seen as secondary, that is only possible because the Intranet was built over an underlying structure conceived as an integrated database. It is the database that empowers the Dynamic Mail and supports an uniform access to the personal and course web pages, always keeping the information updated and coherent, a task that would become a nightmare should the system be based just on HTML technology. So, when a secretary enrols a student in a new course, he is implicitly "added" to all the corresponding (virtual) mailing lists.
Designing the Intranet around a database requires an extra effort of systematisation and modelling of a complex organisation as a Faculty is. But it pays off in terms of consistency, reliability and flexibility of the information system, which becomes an infrastructure able to support new developments.
[1] Ribeiro, Lígia M.; David, Gabriel; Azevedo, Ana M.; Marques dos Santos, José C. Developing an Information System at the Engineering Faculty of Porto University. In Yves Epelboin, EUNIS 1997, Grenoble.
[2] David, Gabriel; Ribeiro, Lígia M. Desenvolvimento do Sistema de Informação da Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (SiFEUP). Internal report, FEUP, Porto, 1996.
Address
Lígia M. Ribeiro
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto
CICA
Rua dos Bragas
4099 PORTO CODEX
PORTUGAL
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