More than just a "reader's interface"
(Clarification by agorman, 8/9/00; 2:57:52 PM)
Most portal systems can be configured to support both read and write capabilities. The UI for these operations, however, can vary widely. For example, some systems include drag-and-drop interfaces that allow the user to drag object from their desktop to the portal. In this way they try to make the interface so transparent as to blur the distinction between local and remote machines. On fast intranets, where portals are most prominent, this becomes more of a reality since response time minimal.
I think that systems like Lotus Notes can be considered among the first portal systems. Lotus had their own client running on local machine which was independent of any web browsers. Today, most portal systems take advantage of ubiquitous nature of web browsers--something that did not exist during the early years of Lotus Notes--by presenting the UI as HTML or applets interacting with servlets on the server side.
While the presentation has change, the goal has not: the distributed creation, organization and dissemination of information. One key feature of today's portal systems is the ability for users to personalize their view of the information. In this sense, the organization of information is preformed at both the system-wide and individual levels.
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