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	Groove

Overview

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Named the "Cadillac" of collaboration technologies (Peer-to-Peer: Building Secure, Scalable, and Manageable Networks, p.55) Groove Workspace is a revolutionary product providing a glimpse of what the web conferencing, live presentation and collaboration tools of tomorrow will bring to our desktops.

Groove allows users to share both synchronously and asynchronously their work online, while also providing facilities for live presentations, VoIP, chat, co-surfing and much, much more. This technology well supports groups and teams working collaboratively and provides a seamless thread between all activities and documents to be shared by a number of people.

Microsoft has invested over 50 million dollars in 2001 in this company and this gets reflected in the amount of technical sophistication, reliability and features made available through this program.

Groove Workspace works on the principle of "shared spaces". These are virtual collaboration areas, which integrate productivity modules selected by the "shared space" creator and allow virtual meetings and exchanges to take place both synchronously and asynchronously. Inside a "shared space" one can place a calendar module, a threaded discussion area, a Files section or a Pictures area. The Groove Workspace user has over 20 different productivity modules that she can choose from when customizing one of her "shared spaces".

Meetings, Whiteboard, Project Management among many other modules complement the live functionalities which include text chat and audio conferencing, a live presentation facility, co-navigation across modules, instant messaging and through third party modules, polling, and multimedia playback with multi-point control.

The man behind Groove is Ray Ozzie who is the idea-man behind Lotus Notes as well. Read what he has to say about this revolutionary tool at:(http://www.crn.com/Sections/BreakingNews/ BreakingNews.asp?ArticleID=38175 or access his personal weblog at: http://www.ozzie.net/blog/)

Groove released its first version of this product two years ago and started shipping it in April 2001. Version 2.0 shipped in April 2002 adding enterprise server capabilities. Version 2.1 was released in August 2002, adding Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes integration. Version 2.5 has been released on January 30th 2003.

If I had to select one unique, revolutionary and highly promising tool in this roundup, I would not have much hesitation in pointing to Groove, for such a great, well designed and thought out tool allowing excellent collaboration and workgroup facilities.

On the other hand, Groove requires lots of PC computing power and very good Internet or LAN connectivity to be of any use. So it is definitely NOT a tool for all of us. But for those who work in teams inside large organizations and for those that even though geographically dispersed have a good connectivity to the Internet, Groove can prove to the killer app to collaborate, present, and share work.

For more information about this milestone-setting online colaboration tool, please see also this other articles on Groove I wrote:

Groove: Ten Reasons Not To Buy
July 2003

Groove: Vision Required
July 2003

Online Collaboration At Its Best: Dig Your Groove And Start Creating Your Own Virtual Real Estate Spaces
April 2003

Online Collaboration At Its Best
April 2003

Online Collaboration Templates For Groove-based Projects
March 2003

Alternatives To YahooGroups
December 2002

Peer-to-Peer Online Collaboration Killer App
October 2002

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Posted on June 14, 2003 at 05:19 PM

Updated on March 01, 2004 at 04:19 PM

Overview