As the World Wide Web becomes ubiquitous, it is natural that more research activities should attempt to use it, especially for collaborative projects. This paper describes a fairly straightforward exercise in collaborative engineering using the Web to enhance communication and documentation between project partners. The current tools of the ARPA Manufacturing Automation and Design Engineering (MADE) program are tested, and future research directions are given.

Although the descriptions of the development of the seeker and the MADE tools are superficial, the authors’ goal is to illuminate necessary tools, problems, and future directions for collaborative engineering. In this respect, they have succeeded. However, I would be interested in an evaluation of the MADE tools in comparison with the preexisting tools. Is the time spent in creating the Web tools and sites justified by the time saved in the rest of the project? Overall, the paper is well written and the story of the exercise is insightful.