Beyond The Net
Online collaboration gets in the Groove
By Janine Warner
Today e-mail is the most popular way people share information over the Internet, but as spam clutters our inboxes and sorting through messages becomes more cumbersome, many people are looking for a better way to work together online, whether they're down the hall or across the globe.
Enter Groove software, an online collaboration program that is on the leading edge of a growing trend in virtual work environments. Groove provides the flexibility, security and integration with other software programs that have already earned it a spot in a wide variety of places, from small consulting firms to large pharmaceutical companies to government organizations.
Microsoft predicts that online collaboration tools will replace e-mail as the most popular way to work and communicate over the Internet. Microsoft has already invested more than $60 million in Groove Networks. Intel and others also have provided funding.
Groove is designed to facilitate complex projects -- from editing a document in real-time to coordinating project management to delivering PowerPoint presentations. But one of the most impressive aspects is how well Groove creates secure peer-to-peer connections.
''You hardly do anything on a computer anymore that doesn't have something to do with a relationship, so trust and security [have] to be built in,'' Ray Ozzie told a group of scientists, business leaders, and technology futurists at the ''Future In Review'' conference in San Diego last month ( www.futureinreview.com ).
Ozzie is the founder, chairman and CEO of Groove Networks, but many people still know him better as the creator of Lotus Notes. Notes was also designed as a collaboration tool, but it has become bogged down behind fire walls and stalled by complex technical requirements, so few people use it for anything more than e-mail.
''Notes is not good for collaborating across a fire wall,'' Ozzie said, adding that it's often too much of a hurdle to get the IT departments of different companies to work together to solve security issues. Groove was designed to be more flexible.
To see Groove in action, I arranged a virtual meeting with Ryan Hoppe, communications manager at Groove Networks, just outside of Boston. I also invited Alex Gault, an e-learning consultant and board member of the e-learning forum in Northern California.
''Groove is very different from the straight-ahead collaboration environments, such as WebX, Centra and PlaceWare,'' Gault said. ''Groove is a truly collaborative work space.''
Before we could ''meet'' in Groove, Gault and I had to download copies of the program. (You can download a limited version for free and purchase a single license for $69.)
Hoppe said he spent about five minutes setting up a shared work space and creating ''invitations,'' which he e-mailed to us. ''Once you establish a connection in Groove, everything you do is encrypted,'' Hoppe said.
Several features make Groove different from other online collaboration tools. First, it's peer to peer, meaning you can establish a connection from one computer directly to another, without needing a server. You can even work securely across a fire wall.
Hoppe took Gault and I on a tour, literally taking over our computer screens as he moved from one program to another. The interface is divided into different sections. In one area you can see who is online. In another you can chat. In the main area you can open many different programs, including a sketch pad where you can see each other's changes in real-time, or a Microsoft word document where you can view each other's edits. You can also surf the Web together.
Groove also includes a voice feature, but it works a bit like a CB radio. I found the phone a much better option if you want to talk while you're working in Groove.
Groove is integrated with Microsoft's office suite, and it's designed to be an open environment, so you can bring almost any kind of file type into the shared work space, although you can only edit word documents in real-time.
Unlike WebX, and some other online collaboration tools, you can use Groove even when you're not connected to the Internet, a valuable feature if you're collaborating in an environment where your Internet connection gets interrupted, or you lose access for a period of time, such as while you're on an airplane.
Of course, part of the idea behind Groove is that you won't have to get on an airplane as often in the future as you did in the past. It's also designed to help manage relationships inside and outside an office.
''In order to have an effective business structure you need a mix of centralized and decentralized systems,'' Ozzie said. ''I think you can do a whole lot more by getting people to work together.''
First publication, The Miami Herald, Jun. 02, 2003
