Groove: The Peaceful Force: revisitied

In http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/10/groove_the_peaceful_force.htm Robin Good rightfully went to task with Sanjana Hattotuwa of Info-Share - and Groove Networks - about two main subjects. Why is Groove supposedly so good for Humanitarian projects (and over the competitors), and why use so much marketting guffaw that serves only to obfuscate both the problem and solution.

Dealing with the latter as a technocrat I feel that I do not waste words. My powers of English may not be the best but I try to be succinct (and my apologies to all when I fall well short of ideals). And here I agree with Robin: too many flowery words can only tend to hide the message. Marketspeak from both Groove and Info-share alike has at times fallen foul of this. And when it happens one has rightly to ask why - and hope that the reason is not to hide unpleasant truths. And because of where I come from (ie PopG), I have had to deal head-on with some of these powerful words since often times the philosophy of PopG's architecture may seem at odds to Groove's own.

The heart of this is when we get on the bandwagon of p2p (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=define%3Ap2p) versus sbc (google does not understand the term server-based computing). The sales pitch from many Groove employees and enthusiasts can be made as if it is a battle of two titans - P2P or SBC: and this approach goes across sales literature.

Now I may be pretty poor at selling PopG's strengths but one debate I do not get het up about is this. And this can be demonstrated with two ways. Firstly SBC is very much sold on the back of "easily demonstrable" cost savings. And yet Groove coming from the opposite end of the computing spectrum argues the same. So who is right? The simple answer is both. Both are right - depending upon the organisation, its history and its hoped for future. A further more important reason I don't get upset about this is simple. With Groove+PopG you can have your cake and eat it. Each organisation can choose its own proportion of SBC versus P2P between 0% and 100% - and that can change over time.

The second is to do with bandwidth and resources. I am really very proud of the provable fact running Groove on PopG largely consumes a flat 20kbps bandwidth to the end-user regardless of how much Groove traffic is moved, be it 20k or 20gigs. You can share gigs of Groove data - but your line to the PopG service is unaffected. Great. This is fantastic news for humanitarian projects.

But let us dig deeper. That 20k requires a steady-stream quality of service higher than a Groove delta consuming the same 20k. We are investigating session reliability techniques and so forth. But the bottom line is Groove for small bits of data is phenomenal. One of my previous blogs went into how Groove (P2P style) can operate at at levels around that required by PING.

Also Groove (2.5 more than 3.0) was considered a resource hog. It may be better now but you still need a new computer - if only for the OS (support for Win98 is now dropped for example). But PopG is backward compatible with 98, 95, 3.1 and even DOS. (Give me a DOS network with half-decent video cards and a PopG server - and I can show you Groove flying.)

So suddenly a lot of technology positioning of "this is better than that", "no it isnt.", can go out of the window. Because now Groove can run in a P2P and a SBC environment and so real customer needs can come to the fore. It may take more effort to think about what the customer really wants/needs. It may take some people some time to get off their hobby horse of either SBC or P2P is better.

And the incredible beauty of it is that Groove runs beautifully and seamlessly in both (not either, both) modes.

And now let me come to the most important aspect. Why is Groove+PopG so good for Humanitarian projects. Technically and sales wise I have tried to address this above. And, Sanjana, if you will forgive me here is one of the most important points which did not seem to come across at all in Robin's interview. The edge.

Groove is so good for Hum... because it is so good at the edge.. By the edge we mean the ability to effectively collaborate outside company boundaries. By the edge we mean the ability to integrate the single person outside the company, be s/he the customer, the specialist, the negotiator, the or whatever. Typically this edge is thought of as being company firewalls, though actualy a larger problem is computer hardware and software.

I want to go further. I want to extend the definition of the edge beyond just to physical boundaries. For true edge computing you need to include the time dimension. Suppose Sanajana wants to bring in a new group to use Groove. Does he have to go to some computer supplier and by 10 computers? Does he have to get a purchase order, computer support personnel, change people's desktops, train them in their new computers. And all this before he installs Groove! By the time that is done everyone - and I mean everyone - has potentially forgotton the original question.

The edge for PopG includes the concept of being able to bring on new people in minutes, in seconds. Over the next week one person in PopG will FULLY configure around 200 Groove accounts for California State University and Creighton University. One person will largely do this from one computer. In the same time quite soon we hope to be able to do 1000 accounts. Once configured these accounts will be fully usable instantly: what is left is training on Groove. Simply put PopG is the fastest way to deploy new seats. We are working on being able to create a new Groove account in seconds, fully automatic.

I feel I have got on a hoobby horse there. Sorry if I have gone over the top. The point is that Groove+PopG is quite unbeatable in the Humanitarian collaboration marketplace. That is not marketspeak. It is fact my firmly held opinion. The reasons are incredible flexibility in deployment schema, incredible adaptability in terms of performance profile, incredible usability of product. And one more reason.

Groove, I have said before, is a democratising technology. By which I mean it treats gives almost every person the same access and rights. PopG is also a democratising technology because you extend access from any computing device. Put both together and that democratisation goes to new and important heights. And that is why together they are absolutely unbeatable for Humanitarion projects.

Now let's look at practice. Recently PopG was immensely pleased to be given the opportunity to demonstrate itself in a mock up of a Humanitarian project running in an austere environment. This was to participate as a supplier to Strong Angel II in Hawai'i. Major tenets of this project were adapatability and flexibility in collaboration technologies. In case of a incident requiring Humanitarian relief you know almost nothing of the circumstances you are going to be faced with - until you get there. Then, on arrival you have to be up and fully running in no time at all with people and organisations who may know nothing about each other.

I am very pleased to report that participants in Hawaii saw the benefits of a PopG solution at first hand using our service in Omaha supported by our management from Oxford, UK. The feedback we recieved was effusive and unqualified.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 8:06

Breaking News: New virus Imalertitis-A found in 14% Groove users returning from vacation

A new plague is seems to be breaking out like wild-fire across the digital USA. Triggered by the storms that recently hit Florida Keys, WHO report that it seems that people who have taken extended Summer vacations and come back to work are most vulnerable. People go on holiday and have a good time, but it is only on return that this dastardly plague seems to burst out. Symptoms to watch for include a high temperature, fevered brow, uncrontrollable and irregular bowel movements. Also the pupils dilate and contract at a tremendous rate, with vision distorted by a large blurred green patch in the bottom right corner. Men seem more susceptble than women. Finally in some their hands shake as they close on the keyboard or mouse.

This is the first form of hybrid virus: spanning both tradiional human and Internet viruses. Apparently research to date indicates there is no obvious cure, except that a vegan diet with lots of soya does seem to reduce swelling & symptoms. Prevention is strongly recommended by cancelling all holiday leave.

Further information will be posted as it comes available. Either bookmark this page or IM me and I will personally alert you as further news breaks.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 18:45

4 things I like about GrooveVO, and 4 things I don't

Upside
1. Speed: very, very responsive
2. Ease of Use: "well done" to the design team is simply not good enough
3. Use of screen: a strong complaint of 2.5 was lots of whitespace: Groove have now gone to the other end of the spectrum
4. Configurability: Now you can set alerts and other gizmos that pan across spaces and contacts

Downside
1. Colour scheme: Grey is not my favourite.
2. Launchpad: inabillity to separate out contacts from spaces (launchpad itself is great)
3. Lost features: A number of small things such as the messages
4. Folders: A space cannot belong to more than one folder

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 11:01

And now for something completely digitally schizoid.

Take one test account running on two computers. Have ready a spare Groove license. Make sure one of these computer instances is not connected to the Internet. Apply the license to the off-line computer. What is the result?

Now repeat the exercise with two spare licenses and apply to both computers when both are off-line. What is the result?

Warning: Caveat Emptor. Small Print. Do not try this on anything other than a test account. Do not use it on your main account.

Answers by IM to "Andy Swarbrick/PopG"...

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 7:38

Talking of suspensions - who is "null"?

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 13:27

How on earth can Nick be need suspending, when he is on-line all the time?

I am working My Spaces trying to ensure that all spaces are ready. Surprisingly and unfortunately I have quite a lot of Synchronisation Alerts. How can this be? Not only that a lot of these alerts refer to my colleague Nick you can find out to whom they refer by clicking on the purge button). Nick, like myself remains online 24/7, so the idea that either of us could be the cause of a Sync Alert issue is difficult to understand.

And now we are at the bottom of the problem, which is apparently caused by Nick having his account on more than one computer and the other computer is off-line most of the time. It is this other computer instance that generates the fault report. The solution right now is to purge Nick, and anyone else - and then immediately re-invite him/them. Providing Nick et al accept all the invitations then most of my Sync Alerts will evaporate back to the ether from whence they came.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 13:20

What does a Mac user and a Groove user have in common?

They both enjoy hot technology. They both think outside the loop. They both challenge perceptions. Neither accepts the status quo. Both are creative. Both are early adopters.

I could go on. Unfortunately the one thing they do not have in common is - platform. (except when my own trumpet blows)

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 7:26

Urgent: Do not install Windows XP SP2

At least not for now. People are coming across problems. Not least of which is performance. Read http://www.groove.net/index.cfm?pagename=Support_SP2&cpv=2,5,10,1825 for Groove's official page on this.

And if you already have installed it - then uninstall it quickly.

And if you cannot uninstall? Well you can always migrate your account to PopG. Zip up your Groove data, ship it to us on CD or via FTP etc and we will have it running instantly. Contact support@popg.co.uk for assistance.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 16:50

Can I run my email on PopG?

We recommend this. Especially if you use AvantMail. All our email runs this way, and we just love it. We can provide custom email accounts purely for PopG life...

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 11:43

Where does data reside if you use PopG for your Groove activity?

It exists 100% on PopG disks.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 11:28

Often I am blind to the smallest trivia that ends up being very useful...

In a recent humanitarian discussion ranged over how one should handle a large set of files that needed to be shared as a searchable library. Groove is getting better (eg Groove File Sharing) but the bottom line is it not very good at this - yet. It remains true that moving a libary around a distributed network presents a large challenge. It can consume consdierable bandwidth and disk space, proportional to the number of users times the size of the library. Groove is best with deltas, not large downloads.

Ok so the question is how can the PopG architecture help here? The answer is very simple. Assuming that ALL users have accounts on PopG then one simply makes a file library available on the normal disk and enable access through Groove. Because the storage is not actually in Groove there is no disk overhead - for anyone. A library of size 10gigs would occupy that amount of diskspace just once, not once for each member.

I guess this shows I am human after all.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 11:19

Intimacy and trust

Nothing, or very little in life, can match the trust a child can place in an adult. Tthere I was at Cropredy festival. Saturday, nighttime begins and one pf the lovely daughter's of my wife's brother comes over and says "I'm tired now". A full day or running around and playing games in the most beautiful of music festivals and after a full day, with a blanket around her shoulders she comes to rest on my in my seat as I sit whilst I listen to a very electirifying Nick Harper, most worthy son of Roy Harper. And believe me the word "very" does not do justice to his music, but I digress. Heather alights on my knee and cuddles up and in less than a minute this 7 year old is asleep & content. This has to be the embodiment, the essence of trust. Can you imagine the leaders of opposing factions of whatever war or battle trusting each other to that level?

Perhaps I should just stick to Folk Music... And Groove...

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 17:18