The SEPIA hypermedia system as part of the POLIKOM telecooperation scenario

INTRODUCTION The decision of the German parliament to relocate the seat of parliament and government from Bonn to Berlin represents a major challenge and opportunity for information and communication technology [2]. It is the goal that ministries and parliament must be able to work (almost) as if they were at the same location. But the Bonn-Berlin problem is not unique. It is only one example of distributed cooperative work, e.g. in a united Europe or in a multinational company operating at a world-wide level. In order to meet this challenge, the German Federal Ministryof Research and Technology instructed the National Research Center for Computer Science (GMD) to develop a research programme named POLIKOM (POL,is+ KOMmunikation = communication between cities). This programme is intended to establish a joint effort of leading companies, research institutes and universities with projects starting soon.