MBA candidates in the Wharton School can now navigate through a vast amount of on-line information more efficiently with SPIKE 3 -- Wharton's newest Intranet-based student communications software. Building on its predecessors, SPIKE 1 and SPIKE 2 -- which were introduced in the last two years -- the new version of SPIKE uses "push" technology to provide information to students without forcing them to search through various outlets, including the World Wide Web. Through the advances of SPIKE 3, the Wharton School can now provide its graduate students with many student services through its Web-based architecture. SPIKE 3 allows students to customize their own systems with visible links to the sources they prefer -- such as certain sites on the Web. This advantage is especially useful because students can immediately find the links they desire -- a major goal of "push" technology. SPIKE 3's development was influenced to a great extent by graduate student requests and opinions. "The SPIKE software is the most recent product of an ongoing process of working with Wharton's students to understand their communication requirements," Wharton Computing Associate Director Kendall Whitehouse said. Most notably -- according to Whitehouse -- the main SPIKE 3 screen features a calendar displaying a list of the current campus events while students use any SPIKE function. And students can view the most recent headlines in the "What's New" section. "Each year we try to make SPIKE better and better," Whitehouse said. "SPIKE is a control panel for a broad range of services, but it can be individualized and customized." Similar to its SPIKE 1 and 2 predecessors, SPIKE 3 has channels linked to e-mail, the library system, the Wharton directory and Penn InTouch. It also features links enabling students to set up their own homepages, join listservs and create their own newsgroups -- all with the click of a mouse button. And Whitehouse added that Wharton can now communicate with incoming students, in addition to the graduate program's 67,000 alumni. Developed in JavaScript, as opposed to Visual Basic programming, SPIKE 3 can be installed without software -- although floppy discs and CD-ROMs are available with Netscape applications specifically formatted for Wharton. JavaScript allows SPIKE 3 to automatically update frequently, enabling students to have the most recent version of the system without unnecessary downloading.
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