One of the critical missions of PopG is to encourage business, education and sports communities to use the PopG collaborative teambuilding platform, as well as to donate some of their PopG desktop time to local, national and international "partnership twinning" for human capacity building.

When the Olympic governing body allowed for the first time the US professional basketball players to compete in the Olympics they were dubbed by the US media as the dream team because they were so much better than any other (basketball) team ever assembled. Today, Groove + PopG can offer governments and NGOs a dream collaborating Internet platform for dream teams of "remote desktop volunteers" as support teams connected with local "in-community" action teams.

In the white paper referenced below “There should be more to collaboration than Email”. There are features that focus group participants mention as their “dream” Internet collaborative tools that match with the Groove Workspace collaborative features. So we now have the opportunity of dream teams with dream collaborative tools. These collaborating for productivity dream teams & tools could advance the mutual learning and capacity building effects of the billions of dollars that will be spent by donors on initiatives for local, national and international capacity building in the beginning of this 21st century.

I noted in the International Herald Tribune of 19 February that Dataquest the market research unit of Gartner Inc reported that computer users would rise 7.9% this year to a total of 138.7 million worldwide. Thus offering for the first time via the PopG + Groove teamwork platform an opportunity for capacity building dream teams & tools from millions of desktops. These teams are composed of two parts with a remote support group of specialist "partnership twinned” via their computers to local action groups, with both remote and local groups merged into one collaborating for productivity deployment team. These two part dream teams become thousands of communities of practice providing learning and capacity building for each other and the individuals and communities they are working with.

This is presented as an example of what could be used in a TV advertising appeal for remote (i.e. desktop) capacity building volunteers. Perhaps the UK Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow introduces this appeal for desktop volunteers. John had this to say about his cross cultural experience: “Completely changed my life, without a doubt - I wouldn't have become a journalist if it hadn't been for being exposed to other cultures. In addition Jon Snow could say something like: “Today you can be exposed to other cultures, while helping to narrow the digital divide from your desktop”.

Then the minister of higher education in Afghanistan Mohammed Sharif Faiz says at his desk: (actual quote from a International Herald Tribune article): “The question is whether Afghanistan can set up a modern education system that can act as a bulwark against fundamentalism and prevent the country from slipping into an economic black hole. Unless our Afghan universities and colleges are established and given the means to operate today, there would be a revival of fundamentalist ideology.”

Then an Afghan female teacher presents the closing line of this appeal, with some Afghan university males and females in front of PCs. The students are looking at a white board via the Internet on their PCs with some numbers on it and the local Afghan teacher’s remote support team teacher is in her home in the UK, US or wherever, writing the numbers on the white board. The Afghan teacher’s appeal: “Why not give an hour a day from your desktop to help build our nation through our youth”. End of appeal.

Local, national and international capacity building is the governments, the non-government organisations and every citizens business. The extraordinary importance of “narrowing the digital divide gap” is pointed out in the article Visions Worth Working Toward: Narrowing the Widening Gap by Steven W. Gilbert president of the Teaching Learning Technology Group. This article can be found at http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/vwwt.html Perhaps Channel 4 and its Web site would like to initiate this “partnership twinning” program in the UK by sponsoring a PopG + Groove Server(s), with links from their Website appeal to these servers. Along, with the PopG + Groove Server – PopG and its Groove partners offer deployment options that include pre-configuring your Groove on PopG, a training package and continuing help-desk support, which are all facilitated via the PopG + Groove space, screen and mouse sharing technology.

This is a White Paper that was commissioned by Groove Networks and can be accessed from the Groove home page: "There should be more to collaboration than email, Is email spurring - or slowing - collaboration? Can Groove Workspace help? IDC analysts talk to enterprise managers and Groove customers and to read about it go to http://www.groove.net/

I saw in the International Herald Tribune an interview they conducted with Robert Calliau who with Tim Berners-Lee put together in 1989 a way to access documents and call it the World Wide Web.

Robert answered the question "Computers aren't as easy as they should be, are they, comparred with TVs. for example?

"That's because computers are not machines. A television is a machine, in the sense that it doesn't have an internal state. When you switch it off and then go away on holiday and then come back and switch it on again, it's the same TV. But if you do something on your computer and switch it off, the state it is in when you switch it on is not at all the same state when you switched it off.

The machine I have on my desk can run Linux, or Mac OS X, which it does at the moment, but I can also put you in front of it when I start up Virtual PC, and it runs Windows 2000. In each case, you are faced with a totally different-looking machine. It's the same box, but it's the software that is the machine. You have to learn not just a language but also all the culture that goes with that."

This reminded me of the PopG solution that includes space, screen and mouse sharing in "narrowing the digital divide", as well as the article Visions Worth Working Toward: Narrowing the Widening Gap by Steven W. Gilbert president of the Teaching Learning Technology Group on the same subject http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/vwwt.html

Learn one culture regardless of the machine with PopG and PopG pops up in the same state that you left it before you went on holiday, or home from work or school and all collaboration that's taken place by your team when you were gone is fully synced when your PopG pops open to where you left it.

This is a White Paper that was commission by Groove Networks: "There should be more to collaboration than email, Is email spurring - or slowing - collaboration? Can Groove Workspace help? IDC analysts talk to enterprise managers and Groove customers to find out at

The PopG server based environment includes the features, benefits and format of Groove plus a lot more:

The PopG + Groove server platform and PopG computer kits that are any computer with an Internet connection offers the strongest link solution for an:
· SME business
· Universities distanced education business
· Professional and university/college sports coaches business
· Nation-building/capacity-building and non-profit organisations business

1. SME businesses. PopG has a higher ROI deployment and support model than the 20th century e-mail and threaded discussion forums, as well as PopG having a higher revenue generator methodology with it's space sharing, screen sharing and mouse sharing technology for businesses to sell their products and universities to sell there distance education product. PopG and its partners could contract the SMEs using all PopG business partners to remotely deploy; train and then tech support them. Also, SMEs that have an interest are given a local, national and international capacity building “partnership twinning” twist in number 4 below.

2. Universities distanced education business. When the eEducators talk about blended education they are extending the classroom via the 20th century e-mail and threaded discussions Internet. Although, today's eEducation products with their million of students are providing an extended classroom, only when these products are being used (by a few universities in the US and even fewer in the UK) for distance education within their country and outside their country are these universities generating more revenue solely because of the Internet, e.g. a four year degree and/or a graduate degree and/or express course credentials for part time study/full-time work, or full-time study, by students that do not reside at the university.

Thus universities should take up PopG + Groove because it is a superior distance education product for gaining more students/revenue than let's say using a 20th century eEducation product, which they may continue to use for the locally residing blended educating of their students. Some US universities are sending professors all the way to China for one week each month because the 20th century eEducation product is essentially a blended education product providing e-mail and threaded discussions and e-mail tech support for the teachers / student's using it. eEducation as today's eEducators perceive it is not the best team communication and collaboration distance education product available. PopG + Groove with the PopG space sharing, screen sharing and mouse sharing technology is a true distance education product for the start of this 21st Century.

Also, PopG and its partners could contract the universities using all PopG business partners to remotely deploy, train and then tech support their distant education teachers/students.

Indeed, to date blended education has reported no return on investment and many are reporting that locally residing students are now paying a higher tuition fees just to cover the costs of this new Internet technology at their school. Of course, the distance education students are not paying the costs of residing at the local university; as well they have the opportunity to work, while studying part-time. So the tuition fees become new revenue being generated for the universities and an education that most of the distance education students could not afford in any other way. PopG + Groove is a product that increases your revenue via your education mission! Also, universities/colleges and other educational institutions are given a local, national and international capacity building “partnership twinning” twist in number 4 below.

3. Professional sports coaches EU and US and sports coaches in the US at their 500+ universities/colleges. Until PopG + Groove the Internet offered the team sports coaches of the world nothing with regards to his/her teams gaining a competitive advantage through 20th century Internet tools

On the other hand coaches have a 21st century PopG + Groove shared space with their entire team, as well as a shared space with each player on the team. Specialty coaches have a shared space with each of their group of players, while the player captains have a shared space with those they are responsible for leading. In each shared space there are the PopG + Groove teambuilding technology and methodology tools and tabs selected by the coach or player responsible for the space.

These tools and tabs would include Player's Roster, Starting Team, MediaTeam Video, Coach's News, HeadsUp PinBoard, PlayChart, PlayBook, Games & Training Calendar, Skills Video Training Review, Training Schedule, Opponents Video & Tendency Charts, Game Plan, etc. PopG and its partners could contract the sport teams using all PopG business partners to remotely deploy, train and then tech support the coaches / players. Thus PopG + Groove becomes the first Internet platform for team sports coaches and players that can result in improving their team’s performances. Also, universities/colleges and secondary school coaches (in mostly soccer / football) are given an international capacity building “partnership twinning” twist in number 4 below.

4. "Partnership twinning" for local, national and international capacity-building organisations and other non-profit organisations that are looking to provide the best return on (e.g. like President Bush & Prime Minister Blair's post-conflict initiatives) donor investments with regards to their capacity-building recipients. PopG + Groove has a superior Internet remote "twinning" model for the World Bank's heavily funded initiatives in distance education, the SME "twinning" approach for business and non-business organisations of the Swedish Development Agency’s methodology and the PopG community of practice "twinning" for each developing country's Internet Gateway that's being promoted via the World Bank. PopG + Groove is a product that offers donors and the capacity-building recipients in developing countries an opportunity for thousands of communities of practice to provide a self-reliance partnership for developing country in substance rather than just metaphoric.

PopG + Groove is advanced as the ideal Internet solution for the developing world’s projects in nation-building via education, government, business, environment, agriculture, health, and community development. Collaborating for productivity is a PopG 21st century IT and Internet deployment technology and a methodology for the developing world’s higher education institutions and from their universities an SME extension programme. The SME extension programme is for collaborating within sectors, as well as for collaborating across-sectors when there are common issues such as governance and financial sustainability. The sectors would include all other levels of education as well as small and medium size businesses, plus government and non-government non-profit organizations. The developing country’s education system and the SMEs are supported from the desktops of “twinning” (matching) schools / educators / students / sports coaches and their student/players (soccer / football) and “twinning” SMEs within this PopG university extension context of SMEs. Similar to all the 4 arenas above PopG and its partners could contract these capacity building agencies using all PopG business partners to remotely deploy; train and then tech support this "partnership twinning" model.

PopG + Groove is a true Internet community design. A community of PopG users needs only to download 1 Meg to whatever computer the user has, rather than downloading 27 Megs to use Groove only on their Windows computer. Of course, this not only applies to a Groove download but also to all downloads of any software.

Therefore, a community of 100 users can be in their Groove, forming teams within their shared spaces and collaborating on PopG within the hour, while the same community of 100 outside of PopG could take days before they are forming teams and collaborating. In addition whether Groove can be successfully downloaded even within days is conditioned on the type of Windows operating system and Internet connection the 100 users not using PopG have.

Hence, people in a community of PopG users of Groove can use dialup and/or they may even disconnect from their Groove for days and weeks. Yet, these people find their spaces on PopG will stay fully synced. This is possible since PopG supports a disconnect mode. So some people logon to PopG - do some collaborating for productivity - and then disconnect for days or weeks at a time. Then when these people log back on to their Groove account at PopG they go back to collaborating for productivity on exactly the same screen that they had left when they disconnected. Their Groove is also fully synced from the other team members who could have been collaborating individually or together in the spaces when the initial disconnected member was away from PopG.

Also, PopG is the strongest link even in an education community using only Windows operating systems. Here is what a teacher has to say about Groove without PopG. "I love Groove the product; it solves many distance-learning problems and can be the foundation for experiences that improve upon classroom style and individual instruction of each student in many cases. It's worth the price because, for one thing, voice chat, while surfing together is an amazing instructional format. You can tell stories and use the whole Internet as your props. You can send groups off to the Internet to figure out things and then come back and report on it.

However, there is one unfortunate factor involved in using Groove - it's not OK when it works for most students. It has to work for all students. If two or three out of twenty are having technical issues, you end up dealing with them, and if you don't, you've lost those two or three students, who will take it as a confirmation of their lifelong IT ineptitude.

And because Groove requires such a robust Windows PC and is not fool proof, as well as Groove definitely prefers broadband -- there's a good chance of having those two or three tough cases Every Time. I know, check it all out before hand. Believe me, it may work on paper, but in reality, inexplicable things always happen to a few people in Groove sessions. At least it has for me over four semesters." End of comment by a teacher who uses Groove within his Windows education community.

Therefore when collaborating for productivity with Groove any community, whatever that community, which has a 90% take up is not good enough - it has to be 100% -otherwise the community will have to give up on Groove. This prompts a rhetorical question that asks if there are any totally pure high-powered windows and therefore non-weakest link communities even within the world's top 1000 companies, i.e. all staff, partners, suppliers, customers, investors, other stakeholders, when at home or on vacation/holiday, etc, etc. Of course, every one of these will not have high-powered Windows computers at their fingertips, at all times when they want to access their Groove. Therefore, PopG is the strongest link solution for all Groove communities. While Groove might be great for a single class of high powered Windows collaborating students within an MBA curriculum, PopG + Groove becomes an essential for an entire school to be collaborating at school/residence/on-the-move and for cross-curriculum collaborating within a school/residence/on-the-move, and for multi-school collaborating at school/residence/on-the-move and for multi-school/residence/on-the-move “partnership twinning” collaborating in different time zones and cultures.

The mission of PopG is to encourage business, education and sports communities to use PopG, as well as to donate some of their PopG desktop time to local, national and international "partnership twinning".