Towards Collaborative Virtual Prototyping in a World Market

Virtual prototyping is a new technology that is considered strategically important by many manufacturers and research institutes. To be competitive in the world market, new products with rapidly increasing complexity have to be developed. In order to foster a close cooperation with brach offices or subcontractor design information has to be exchanged faster and more easier. New hetworking technologies together with communication and conferencing services promote workspace collaboration. This paper provides a brief overview of virtual prototyping, computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) services, network technologies, discusses some facts with respect to collaboration, and draws some conclusions about the impact of an collaborative virtual prototyping environment.