A multimedia electronic mail system on a heterogeneous environment

This paper examines the research and development of a prototype object-based multimedia electronic mail system (MEmail) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The system provides a transparent multimedia electronic mail facility across a heterogeneous environment which are linked together via different local area networks within the academic environment of NTU. The paper provides an overview of the system and addresses a number of design and architectural issues. The problems of heterogeneity and interconnectivity are highlighted and solutions are proposed. MEmail uses a unified user interface across different platforms for authoring, receiving, viewing and sending multimedia mails. It also facilitates the attachment of commercial data files such as spreadsheet or word processor data across the system.<>