The World Wide Web: Opportunities for Operations Research and Management Science

  • Authors:
  • Hemant K. Bhargava;Ramayya Krishnan

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • INFORMS Journal on Computing
  • Year:
  • 1998

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Abstract

The World Wide Web has already affected OR/MS work in a significant way, and holds great potential for changing the nature of OR/MS products and the OR/MS software economy. Web technologies are relevant to OR/MS work in two ways. First, the Web is a multimedia communication system. Originally based on an information pull model, it is-critically for OR/MS-being extended for information push as well. Second, it is a large distributed computing environment in which OR/MS products-interactive computational applications-can be made available, and interacted with, over a global network. Enabling technologies for Web-based execution of OR/MS applications are classified into those involving client-side execution and server-side execution. Methods for combining multiple client-side and server-side technologies are critical to OR/MS's use of these technologies. These methods, and various emerging technologies for developing computational applications, give the OR/MS worker a rich armament for building Web-based versions of conventional applications. They also enable a new class of distributed applications working on real-time data. Web technologies are expected to encourage the development of OR/MS products as specialized component applications that can be bundled to solve real-world problems. Effective exploitation, for OR/MS purposes, of these technological innovations will also require initiatives, changes, and greater involvement by OR/MS organizations.