Chigago Tribune : Future of computing may lie in interpersonal connections (registration required)

Although computer users today tend to focus on messages and documents, they'll soon use technology to focus upon other people, Ozzie said.
"Today, people are accustomed to being in touch with one another audibly," Ozzie said. "The next step that we haven't seen yet will be ways technology can help you find awareness of others. You see if someone is online or offline. You'll have a much greater ability to be aware of what others are doing--where they are geographically, are they busy, can they be interrupted?"

Ray Ozzie is one of the prominent technologists who take part in a panel discussion to explore the future of computing and networking. This event will be held on 29 april to celebrate the 10th anniversary of MOSAIC, the mother of all webbrowsers.

The Groove Toolkit for Visual Studio.NET wins a JOLT award. Congratulations to the Team at Groove and Sam Gentile

John Bristowe continues to experiment with Groove WebServices. He's now connecting WS-forums and Groove :

I wonder if this proof-of-concept can now target Tim Knip's remote Groove Access Point, which publishes a public discussion to a Web page via his (very cool) grooveInterop Tool for Radio Userland. *SHRUG*

 

A very possible scenario would be have both sets of SOAP endpoints (that is, WS-Forums and GWS) operate over a fully-duplex "virtual channel"; have WS-Forums invoke the GWS Discussion Web service when a new post (AKA, discussion item) is created and vice versa. In the scenario presented above, the WinForm simply acts as "go-between"; its role is (ultimately) redundant. Ideally, we want this model communicating endpoint-to-endpoint, which shouldn't too difficult to get up & running.

Another Groove Dashboardtool emerges. Parallelspace Dashboard 1.0 combines and summarizes key information from Groove Workspace, desktop applications, corporate information systems and the Internet into a single, easy-to-use display.

Version 2.1.5 of TeamDirection Project and Dashboard for Groove 2.5 is now shipping. New features include:

• Multiple resources per task


• Task Grid user interface customizations such as column ordering and show/hide capability for each column


• UI customizations automatically saved


• MS Project synchronization optimization as well as synchronization of task notes

CRN interviews Microsoft's Jeff Raikes :

CRN: Can you talk about the Groove investment? Does Microsoft get rights to use Groove's technology?

RAIKES: I don't even know the details, but we came together with them because we admire Ray Ozzie, what he can do and what he is doing with Groove. He wants our help in terms of what he's trying to accomplish, and we want his help in what we're trying to accomplish. He'll be one of the best sources of input for what we need to do in the next wave of the Windows operating environment. He wants to be able to influence that and use what we're doing as part of what he wants to build for customers. I think that's great.

Hugh Pyle reports on the Groove forums that there is a new version of Meetcam,  a videoconferencing tool for Groove 2.5.

Ashok Hingorani : Catch ‘em Young and you have them for life.

We talk of collaboration and communities and networking and we are almost always referring to Business – this is a folly. For these habits are set early in life as we are socialized, make friends, keep in touch and share events – when we are young..................

Somehow i missed this. It seems that the Infoworld staff is discovering Groove and our Radio/Groove tool :-) On 26 feb Chad Dickerson wrote on his weblog : 

I'm admittedly a little late giving Groove a try, but in my first day using it, I'm pretty much blown away. I'm actually using Tim Knip's Groove interop tool to post this entry. I'm impressed enough that I've asked other folks on the technology staff here to download it ASAP. I think we're going to try a real meeting using it tomorrow -- stay tuned.

Mcmahonww responds to a thread about online coaching on the Groove forums :

We have developed an active business model enabled by Groove to offer sales and management training and business coaching to larger corporate clients and their dealer and distributor channels. We are a sales and management conusulting group with clients around the world. Every day we are delivering live training/coaching sessions using Groove as the underlying delivery mechanism and it is proving very successful - renamed tabs to be "Virtual Classroom" (browser), Resource Center (files), Discussion Forums, etc.

Lots and lots of new content on the PopG weblog. It seems that Charles has found his medium ;-)

The Boston Globe has more information on Mitch Kapor and Groove

Kapor confirmed that he is still an investor in Groove; indeed, part of the $38 million in additional financing announced by the company last week came from Kapor.

Rick Klau speculates about the reasons of Mitch Kapor's resignation from the Grooveboard and the future of Groove :

The far more interesting question for me: what are the implications of Microsoft being among the largest shareholders in a company that is providing domestic surveillance software to the Pentagon? And who raises this kind of bubble money in today's economy?

Here's my guess: Ray Ozzie has many relationships within the government, and Groove's COO (Chuck Teubner) "began his career as a programmer, analyst and manager of application development for the Defense Department" and later held an executive management position with Martin Marietta. Microsoft has a few exemptions to their antitrust settlement with the DOJ dealing with national security. Whatever business plan is being shopped around to investors, I guarantee you that Groove is presented as a company with a growing lock on the burgeoning homeland security market. Groove as groupware may be interesting to the average user. Groove as warware appears to be terribly interesting to investors. And guess which constitutency will win? I think that is the lesson of Mitch Kapor's departure.

Hugh Pyle : I finally spent a little time playing with Groove Web Services. It's really good. A few rough edges, and not nearly enough features of course... but this is one of the most straightforward and elegant APIs I've ever seen.

Infoworld : Putting p-to-p through enterprise moves

Groove Web Services APIs (application program interfaces), says Wilsker, will extend data to more and more users and applications. Features such as files, discussions, documents, calendars, and online presence can be tied into Groove Workspace. Plus, the integration of XML and Web services offered in Groove's Version 2.5 will enable easier collaboration by making an increasing number of Microsoft applications available in a collaborative setting, he says

Press Release : Groove Networks and Intel "Unwire" Collaboration

"The marriage of wireless Internet connectivity with powerful notebook computers, coupled with the growth of public Wi-Fi hot spots gets us one step closer to the notion of a global computer, in which every transistor is connected to every other, worldwide," said Ray Ozzie, Groove Networks' CEO. "Yet 'always on' connectivity does not guarantee increased productivity for the road warriors of today and tomorrow. Just as Intel has made it easier to get online, it's up to the software industry to provide intelligent Internet applications that make it easier to get things done online. This has been our vision for Groove from day one."

Dan Gillmor writes in his column today :

My immediate instinct was to praise Kapor for showing honor and principle. This implicitly suggested a lack of those qualities on the part of Groove's leaders, and on reflection I concluded I was being too harsh. They aren't bad people, and toolmakers can't always pick and choose their customers.

Yet I'm troubled by many things about Groove these days. One is the company's deepening embrace with major investor Microsoft, which has effectively become an arm of the government with its monopoly software and cozy deals with the Justice Department and other agencies. Groove, too, has seen government as a major client -- and there's no getting around the fact that the company, which makes collaboration software, is acting as a willing accomplice in the formation of the surveillance society we should all fear.

John Burkhardt makes some good points

It is a tough issue and one that I've struggled with personally.  I have no details, nor will I, of what exactly Poindexter is doing with Groove.  But I don't quite see it as the same moral dilema as that of creating the atom bomb.  From our perspective we are building collaboration software.  What people end up collaborating about is their business - not ours.  Maybe that's niave.  Its hard for me to know where to draw the line.  Should Bjarne worry that the project uses c++?  Should Tim Berners Lee worry that it uses html?  What if it uses email?  The telephone?  SQL?  Groove provides a secure and decentralized communications infrastructure.  It doesn't specifically help the government spy on us.

I agree, making collaboration software is by no means comparable with the creation of a weapon of mass destruction like the atom bomb. I used the quote, which was in the original NY timesarticle btw, to illustrate the danger of the shift in public perception of Groove and the moral dillemmas i personally might be facing as a Groove developer in time.

Creating infrastructure and providing tools to communicate doesn't mean your automatically responsible for unethical use of these tools. Like phonecompanies cannot be held  responible for the ransomcall of a kidnapper, Groove cannot be held responisble for the fact that the US intelligence is smart enough to choose it for decentralized communication.

I think for me personally the line is drawn when obvious "unethical" use is actively pursued. Being an enterpreneur myself i'm know the importance of a stable revenuestream to survive and thrive and i'm also aware that there is a huge commercial oppurtunity in the intelligence business in this post-911 world but what scares me, besides the obvious Orwellian nature of initiaves like the TIA, is that Groove might become too dependant on this financially very interesting niche of military and intelligence organizations and that in time this might change the nature of the product and the company i've been falling in love with in the first place.

On the brighter side: Ashok and Roomy have started the Groove Toolbox where you can download the most recent versions of their excellent spreadsheet and Database Groovetools which shine in educational scenarios and other grassroots deployments of Groove as Rick Lillie recently reported.

NY Times reports that Mitch Kapor resigns from the board of Groove

Mitchell D. Kapor, a personal computer industry software pioneer and a civil liberties activist, has resigned from the board of Groove Networks after learning that the company's software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its development of a domestic surveillance system.

Groove's growing involvement with the Total Information Awareness Program scares the hell out of me too. It troubles me even more then Groove's new pricing policy, Microsofts expanding stake in the company and the continuing lack of a native MacOSX client together. As Tim Bishop writes :

I've played around with Groove a little bit, and I am very impressed. And I don't have any problems with our intelligence community using good tools -- in fact I am delighted that they have good tools. But to have those same tools being used for Total Information Awareness is an abomination. As the article points out, commercial software developers are going to start wrestling with the same issues that physicists have wrestled with since World War II. To what degree are they responsible for the ends to which their tools are put?

I'm afraid Groove is facing some serious image problems at least and risks losing the hearts and minds of future users and developers. I wish Ray Ozzie would pick up his weblog  to shed some light on these issues and take away the growing feeling of unrest in the global ecosystem of Groove enthusiasts and developers.

Rick Lillie :  The real payoff for Groove will be when a large enough population of university students are using Groove, as though, Groove were a "natural way of life."  When a well-trained student body graduates and goes to work, companies will become adopters of Groove.  The student-workers will want to use the tools that they are used to using.

John Burkhardt : I can't say it any better than Paresh.  I wish all who were let go yesterday the very best.  I'm experiencing a bit of survivor's guilt today.  Behind the headlines we have to remember that there are real people and families, hopes and dreams.  If anyone is looking to hire some of the best and brightest folks in the business, be on the look out for resumes with Groove Networks on them.

Geek News Central : I have spent the last few days talking to staff members at Groove for a project I am working on for my regular Job. I have been getting educated on the product to ensure it will do what we need it to do. Groove is group collaboration software that allows you to collaborate on projects and information. The program is so unique that I recommend all geeks go out and download the demo and give it a spin.

An article on DotNet Junkies on implementing a custom WSE filter by John Bristowe includes some very useful sample code on how to target Groove Web Services SOAP endpoints

You can achieve very high levels of integration between applications and Groove via GWS. For example, you could write a service that moves contact information to-and-from CRM applications you may have running at your business. With GWS, the sky's the limit in terms of what you can do. This is evidenced by various individuals who have already begun integrating Groove and applications they use on a day-to-day basis. One great example of this integration is a tool written by Tim Knip (Groove) that integrates with Radio Userland

Internetnews : Groove Banks $38M from Microsoft, Cuts Staff

Groove spokesman Richard Eckel declined details on Microsoft's ownership position, which was less than 20 percent before the latest investment. "They (Microsoft) remain a minority investor. It is safe to say they led the round of financing," Eckel told internetnews.com

Press release : Groove Networks closes 38$ Million financing

Groove Networks today announced it has closed a fifth-round financing of $38 million, with investments from all existing investors, including Microsoft Corp., Intel Capital, Accel Partners and private investors. With this financing, the company has now raised more than $155 million since its founding in October 1997 by CEO Ray Ozzie.

Groove Networks also announced it has completed a restructuring of its sales, marketing and services organizations, resulting in the elimination of 58 positions, or 20 percent of its workforce. The majority of jobs eliminated are at the company's Beverly, Mass., headquarters. The company said the reorganization will reduce its sales and marketing costs, reflecting the current reality of extended Fortune 500 enterprise software sales cycles.

Just got notified that Andy and Charles have started a PopG weblog. On this weblog you can find everything about PopG's Hosted Groove Workspace Services over a thin client including the latest news of PopG migration to Groove 2.5.

Boston Globe : In the blink of an eye , IM spreads across systems

The product, named Pro/Engineer Wildfire, comes with built-in ''collaboration capability'' software created by Groove Networks of Beverly. The idea is that engineers working on very complex designs can use IM, as well as other collaboration services, to work securely with their colleagues around the world in real time. Hit a snag? Spark up that IM window and chat with the team members who are online at the time.

I've been reading Joel Orr's reports on construction specific extranets since 1998. Glad to see he discovered Groove 

Our take: This is the Borg of collaboration tools, only you get to retain your individuality. And it is an incredible value. The only factor that keeps Groove from sweeping away competing forms of collaboration and communication right now is perceived  performance. I don't know why, but Groove can feel slow, compared to IM. Of course, it isn't an IM competitor. But that's what I, and most users, want it to be—IM with an audit trail, file-sharing, joint editing, etc., etc. It's almost that, but not quite. Engineering can really benefit from this product.

The discussion on Groove's new pricing policy continues on Vowe.net