YAT: Time to get on the RAC

An exciting development in Groove is a greater more open debate around various issues. This is really impressive and not to be underestimated. Really.

Searching for Groove and Blog on Google I came across one cynic kind-of complaining about ray Ozzie drawing a legal line on personal blogs by Groove employees. The cynical comment was around Groove heading fro IPO at some stage. Well blow me, and I thought Groove Networks was a non-profit organisaton!!

And so ignoring that aside, I challenge anyone anywhere to find another company that is leading the way on openness and connectivity the way Groove is doing. Really. This is a challenge. And Groove wasn't always up to it. Early on I, for one, was critical that Groove did not embrace its own technological advance except as a tools for driving profits. I remember one webcast where I just cringed at the difference between what was spouted and what was bing practised.

But no more. Groove Networks has learnt. It has learnt to be more open. It has learnt to trust from in its surround sound. Such a lesson does not pervade an organisation overnight, nor do some people get it - ever. But full credit to those who do. I shall not name names.

But gradually Groove is entering more and more into more open dialogue. Dialogue that is expressive, effective, humourous, productive, trusting. Regular readers will know the adjectives.

You will know the frustrations of entering into such dialogue. I do not mince words. Sometimes my own emotion goes over the top perhaps. You will know the dangers of such dialogue. Opening yourself up allows weaknesses to be seen that perhaps should not.

But this surround sound system is and eco-system of the first order. And what needs to be in place to help develop and nurture it is a one step forwards, two steps back approach. A careful testing of lets do this, lets open up a little more. A bit of pain, a lot of pain, but then wow a real feeling of real tangible progress that otherwise would be clearly impossible.

Where oh, where is this rant going? YAT (Yet Another Tip) is all about technical tips. Well here is one that helps extend boundaries of your Groove associations, your own Groove surround sound - carefully.

When inviting people to spaces you can simply send them an invite. Ok, but if you want to open it up as a general facility then you can save an invittaion file. And you can go further and email this file. You can post it on a website. You can add it to a files tool or GFS space.

But take care. Take very great care. Once you have sent that GRV file out - you can never get it back. Once someone has downloaded it once onto their computer it can be redistributed without your authority. Sending a GRV space invittaion by email can simply be forwarded on and on and on. It never loses its potency until the day the space dies.

However Groove created a neat if underused feature. And one that I love. RAC - Require Acceptance Confirmation. Tick the RAC box when you are saving your invitation file and your are almost totally safe. The final step is to deny the invite permission - so that the only way in is through the RAC file.

Send the RAC file round the world, who cares! Publish it on the web. When the GRV is executed you, yes you, will get asked to authorise the new member before they join. You are the gatekeeper and no-one can get past without your explicit authority. If you say no, then they do not get in.

Check your RAC now and you will never regret it. Leave it unchecked and you just never know who will break easily and invisibly through your tightest firewall and groove security fence.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 17:05

Hot news...

If you are new to this spot of blog then you will not be aware that it is all done from Groove.. Actually it is all published using Tim Knip's (www.suite75.com) excellent Blogger tool. Well the news is... V3 is en route... I cannot wait...

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 8:12

Err, New Window update

Thanks Mark Smith and James Roe-Smith for correcting my entry about opening a new window from Groove. In the top right corner of (almost) every window is a little icon to open-in-new-window. And it works well, very well.

I guess I forgot it because it is not on the menu, and anyway the time I think about new windows or not is from workspace explorer.

Which brings me in mind of another correction I should make. In an Blog around 2-3 months ago when GVO was still as shiny as a brass farthing (now come on how many of you know what a farthing is?) I criticised Windows workspace explorer because it weas just grey. Whereas now that I have worked out how to actually use the damned thing it is there as my desktop all the time. ("Andy, I told you all you needed was some patience!!")

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 8:10

That's it, I can take no more, it's time to suspend suspensions

Groove has a "feature" called suspension. This is supposed to be a way of managing space members who are off-line for a long time. Nice idea, but frankly the function simply does not work. It does not deal properly with people who are off-line a long time and definitely can destroy productivity in those who are on-line.

And remember we are not just talking about a tool that is working or not working - we are talking fundamental fuinctionality. The act of suspension is akin to your credit card or bank overdraft being suddenly pulled from underneath you. It is that dramatic. It also acts for two groups of people, suspendees and suspenders. So usually this automatically affects double the number of people.

We are talking crisis.

What is suspension supposed to achieve? Well if you read the scant information supplied it is supposed to conserve disk space. Ok, so my Groove environment runs to 3gigs of data. How much disk space are we talking about - 10meg, 100meg? As far as I am concerned I would not be concerned with a 1/3rd of my disk space being held used to obviate suspnsions. And because of the importance I would probably go higher than that. For many / most people disk space is simply not an issue and the sooner GN get used to that the better. What people want need is functionality. So some trite message implying how hard GVO is working to keep your disk in trim really does not help. It really doesn't.

My guess is that there is a hidden agenda. My guess is that what is really going on is that Groove has internal buffers for sending and receiving data and excessive deltas left hanging round might blow these buffers and/or hamper performance. And that is why Groove insists on suspensions.

Let us take a step back in time. My first Christmas working inside Groove - was it 2001? And we ran an global exercise "How Many Users Can Groove Cope With...", a veritable stress test over two-three weeks in which suspension problem featured heavily with a notion negatively coined as black-balling. I remember Ashok being a particular problem because of his flaky dial-up connection. On that occasion 150 users was blowing stacks inside Groove and automatic suspensions were happening. And the reason at that time for the extra emphasis was that suspension occured at the moment of space invitation. Well that problem is gone - and well done GN for resoving it. But suspensions have continued to be an issue. Less of a problem yes - that is until now.

To give you another idea as to the widespread reach of the suspension effect, I would suspect that almost every Groove user has suffered from suspension at some time in their Groove career. If true then that is in itself an appalling statistic.

Why are suspensions bad? They are bad because they largely affect the wrong people. I mean my account is guaranteed on-line 24/7 on more than one computer - each of which has a full-on internet connection. Why ever should my account get suspended - ever. WHY?

Suspensions are bad because suspensions solve a problem that often does not exist. They are trying to conserve disk space. I have never heard once of someone complaining of disk space issues associated with suspensions. Not once. I have requested further information to be made available such as showing buffer sizes, but nothing has been done.

They are bad because they are automatic. Lack of control is something that really hits one's confidence. If there was some warning saying something like "in two days time XXX will happen unless..." But no, suspension just happens.

Suspensions are bad because they affect a fundamental part of Groove functionality. They hit at the heart of Groove. The heart of Groove is being a fully paid up member of a certain space.

Suspensions are bad because they can begin to occur when activity picks up. So a team has been considering using Groove, gets everything ready and are then the project is held up for a month. Then later Ready, Steady, .... Just when a project starts to say - "ok start using Groove". Suspend.

And the final nail in the suspension coffin is that different members see different pictures of suspension. Rarely when suspensions happen is everyone in tune and even worse it is almost impossible for each to find out the "situation". For example I have a space in which I have just been suspended. Initially I say that someone else was suspended, so I invited them. I logon to two other accounts. Neither show any suspensions. I post data to force updates - they're ok.

So as far as I am concerned it is time to suspend suspensions.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 3:23

YAT: <F6>

Don't you just love it when you find a hidden gem. Press and enjoy.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 5:11

unread, unread, unread, unread, unread, unread...

Recognise the tune? A great, stupendous feature of Groove is its unreads Unreads, for the ignorant among you, are notifications that indiate new or updated information. They appear as both icons and notifications depending upon circumstances and settings. Groove has a variety of features that help you navigate to such data and react in real-time to events as they happen. And over time Groove has improved the intensity of unreads to the point...

That they could become Groove's downfall. Don't get me wrong unreads are brill. But unreads can also be bad news. Before I explain why, let me say that the unreads feature single-handedly permits the user to effectively navigate 100 times more information than would otherwise be humanly possible. And perhaps after some upgrades that ratio may reach a 1000 or more.. What I mean by this can be thought of in context of information overload of this information age. Unreads allow you to embrace much more relevant and important information than would ever otheriwse be possible. And Groove, at least, if I have my way, have not finished with improving unreads. But that is a digression. Or is it?

The simple truth is, that unreads become a dread for some people. Those people are people who use Groove infrequently (once a month?), people who go on holiday, people who do not understand unreads and how and why to manage them, people who belong to spaces that are extremely active in which perhaps they personnally have a passing interest.

And believe me, when I use the term dread I use that word in its exact sense. The active, experienced and knowledgeable Groove user knows to keep on top of their unreads. They know that if they join a busy and full space that the first thing they do is "clear unreads" and be done with them. They know that if they come back from an extended holiday (assuming they haven't been suspended) then they must similarly clear down all unreads.

Clearing your unreads across all spaces is the only way to maintain your sanity. If you do not then you will end up in confusion and your blood pressure will rise. The next symptom is a lack of confidence in your understanding of Groove. And then finally you are in danger of switching off from Groove alltogether.

I have seen this happen. It is no joke. This is unread trauma in action. Grown men will cry because they do not know how to manage excessive unreads. They think to themselves "I can do this" and a a couple of days go by, and they begin to sink lower and lower. And after a week they begin to huddle in the corner in a permanent cold sweat and stay well away from the computer, frightended of seeing another 1000 unreads.

So what is the answer? Well training is an obvious starting point. Perhaps counselling from the companies pschologist/analyst may be needed for dire cases.

But there are things that Groove Networks can do as well. There are technical improvements that can help avoid the trauma in the face of excessive unreads. These include:

a) the ability for a space designer to set the default unread status for new members as read. A single change that I would switch on for any space with substantial existing content - without a second thought.

b) the ability to quantify other people's unreads. As a manager of my company's Groove environement I need to know who is subject to unread overload. Put it this way, how many unreads can you create in a day? Let's say you are a Sanjana (:-) ) and can create 2-300. Suppose you are part of a team of 5 Sanjanas. Each person would then have to read 1000 or more unreads to stay on top of the information flow. So I need to know how my company is operating and that means knowing if someone is sustaining excessive unreads.

c) the ability to clear down other people's unreads. Training can go only so far. If a user is subject to excessive unreads then if they continue to not clear them down - then it is my job to help them learn how to operate their Groove better - and without pain. Clearing their unreads lets them get back to normality and begin to be inspired by Groove, not demoralised.

d) the ability to set other people's reads to unreads. Such an ability will help me to to bring focus to my company

(both c & d need to be used with great, nay abslute care and discretion)

e) extend the ability to prioritise unreads. Currently I can set notifications for changes in all data in all spaces. But there are some spaces for which I have personal responsibility. For example if one of our communities has a user with a problem and they post into one of our HelpDesk spaces - then I want to react quickly. I cannot do this if that unread is swamped with 100's of other unreads of lesser importance than mine.

Thanks for unreading this tome. There is much more to say on this and I will return to the subject - watch for then next in this series entitled "Unread or Noneread"...

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 11:52