Intranet - An object oriented definition

Intranet is a word often used to describe a private system of communication between computers within a corporation. The essence of such a system is that it uses Internet technology and protocols to effect communications between internal clients via an internal server. The server also often acts as a common central source of information and software resources.

To clients using an Intranet system it is seen as a universal software application, a source of information and a communication tool.

Many Intranets are located within a local area network and cut off completely from the Internet. Others have portals to other networks and even to the Internet. These more extensive Intranet systems are described as having a wide area network.

Some companies, particularly those where the client computers are separated by large distances, do not have a local network at all. Instead, they rely on the infrastructure of the Internet to facilitate client to client communication and supply connections to a private server. Abstracting the essence of this kind of Intranet system, it can be viewed as a discreet messaging framework embedded within the Internet.

In a non object oriented world, this messaging framework would be seen as an inflexible arrangement with a server at the hub of the system, serving communications and data to each of the clients.

It is very tempting to consider the central server of such a centralized hub system as the main control object and the prime distributor of shared resources. However, this is not how it would be viewed from an object oriented perspective.

From an object oriented view point, an Intranet embedded in the Internet is a very familiar situation. It is a particular configuration of message paths between objects - chosen for a special purpose or application.

In Lingo Sorcery, we saw how message paths can be set up between objects to specify the operation of a system: objects can be included or excluded from the communication paths to alter the system's responses to messages. In this way, a system of objects is not considered fixed and rigid but is seen to be flexible, adjustable and adaptable.

To see how an Intranet can be viewed in this way, let us again take the case of a central server but one which has no files of its own; the server acting simply as a receiver of email messages which it publishes as Web pages.

Any client who accesses these Web pages could look for messages on them and act according to any instructions found. For example, a message could ask client number 2715 to answer a question posed by client 3298; Client 5673 could leave a gif image for client 1543 to retrieve; client 2245 could leave some data for client 6624 to process.

In this scenario, the Intranet's server acts not as a central control and source of information but merely as a staging post for messages and data with all information and routing controlled by the clients.

Now imagine giving each client a software agent to assist with their communication process such that the agent arranges all Internet communications and data transfers. In this paradigm, the operation of the central server would be transparent and it would appear to each client as if they were communicating and cooperating with each other only through their agents.

It does not take much imagination to see how agents could be programmed to visit more than one server to collect and leave messages and data. In this way a client could be transparently connected to many Intranet systems. Morphing the paradigm a little further could see all client agents transparently accessing multiple Intranet systems for their clients. Soon the vision merges the individual Intranets into Intranet clusters which combine to form an Intranet of Intranets.

This is how object oriented thinking sees Intranets embedded within the Internet.

Viewed in this way, the Internet can be considered as a flexible, adjustable and adaptable collection of objects which can be infinitely reconfigured for any communication or information retrieval purpose. Simply by instructing its agent appropriately, any client computer in this system is free to set up its own message paths to any other clients and in so doing create its own individual Intranet system.

From the client's view point (orientation) the system responds to any of a multitude of different ways according to the client's needs or wishes.

Most people find this concept very difficult to take on board because they are so used to thinking in terms of the servers dictating the responses to the clients. The reality is that in object oriented environments the servers often only represent passive objects in the system: it is the clients who are the active players - through their selectivity. By allowing the client to be able to reconfigure different Intranets within the Internet, the system as a whole has unlimited potential for change and adjustment.

It takes a really big paradigm shift to see this one.

The power of this client side paradigm is that the Internet can be seen as an infinitely flexible system of cooperating and communicating objects which are at the bidding of each individual client.

In contrast, to this object oriented view, the Internet would be seen as a system which needs to be progressively more organized and ordered as witnessed by the constant call for standards and additional rules and protocols. In the process, the Internet would lose its adaptability and flexibility.

Which of these two competing approaches are going determine the future of the Internet? My bet is on the object oriented (client side view) - that's the way that nature always chooses for biological systems.

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