Supporting verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty through a persistent conversation interface

Workflow management systems have the potential to make explicit an organization´s implicit need to initiate, track and execute artifacts and communications about those artifacts. In this sense, these systems can be described as persistent conversation systems, because they support the communication and coordination of distributed actors through a computer-based medium. Furthermore, such systems have the ability to archive and report on current and past activities and communications. We describe the work that we conducted on building a prototype system that has these characteristics. The system is intended to provide an efficient, effective, auditable means of communication between the various groups that make up the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, thereby enabling the verification of this very important worldwide legislation.