A server system (195) is connected to a plurality of kiosks (100) by a network (150), e.g., the Internet, corporate or government intranets, extranets, etc. A kiosk has one or more predetermined input/output devices (130) (e.g. displays, keyboards, paper printers, telephones, etc.) and one or more driver programs (110) (local APIs) for each of the input/output devices (130). The displays (103) are used to present one or more graphical user interfaces (105) and video images to a user of the kiosk (100). The kiosk (100) has a browser (160) which it uses to obtain material from the server (195). The server (195) has one or more application files (175) or configuration sets that it serves to the kiosks (100). The configuration sets are application specific (an application is a use for which the kiosks are configured or reconfigured). One or more of the files in the configuration sets include one or more embedded control programs that are used to control the local APIs for the devices on the kiosk. In this way, the devices are controlled to configure the kiosk to perform the application.