Tome or not to tome, that is the question

Pre-Groove days I used to write looong e-mails to colleagues. I would spend hours crafting every word. Later I would find that the email had not been read. I took this personally. How dare anyone not read something of importance that I had deliberated on! I felt chided. So what did I do next? I wrote another email. My colleagues in their turn felt battered.

Now although I can imbue myself with feelings of self-guilt about being "unable to communicate effectively", I now know there is more to this. True, it does not matter what technology you have under your belt, long-winded tomes do not understand technology, they just require a keyboard, a word-processor and some fingers.

And to underline that it does not matter about technology, an ex-colleague specialised in lengthy tomes in Groove. The last I saw ran to 70 pages of what could be compressed into 1 page. But that's another story.

But used well, Groove can reduce that tome length down. It does that because Groove operates at the level of thought. It is excellent at sharing those thoughts effectively. A thought is usually much less than an essay, it can be word, a graphic, a comment. It can be an idle gesture that in a lateral thinking way sparks something.

Groove documentation talks of deltas. That's what Groove is good at, nay absolutely excels at. And that's what makes Groove so ultra-special. The feeling of exhileration when you are bouncing ideas from people sends electricity down your fingers and inspires you. Quite inspirational.

The power of Groove squared

Perhaps I read more into this than I should, but I have always felt that the effects of using Groove on a person and an organisation can be earth shattering. True, at http://helfrich.typepad.com/michael_helfrichs_weblog/2005/01/the_road_ahead.html Michael Helfrich, in stating his case for starting a new business points the finger at a much more powerful dynamic - close exposure to those on the front line of battle. But the reason he is there is because of that Groove dynamic - at many diferent levels, induding the type of empoyee that Groove Networks attracts, the ethos that goes through its employees, and the life-impacting technology that Groove is.

Having met and spoken to Michael a couple of times it would be hard to argue a bonding. Yet both he and I, and any other hardened Groove person would know that I would be able to have some level of intimacy whilst Grooveing that would be impossible to conceive of via E-mail or so many other collaboration platforms.

Intimacy is an important Groove feature. When you can stay at arm's length from a person then you can divorce yourself from their emotions. Right now I am in dialogue with someone I have never met over Groove who claims to have near death challenges (not Michael). This is a person I have never met, yet wish to. In being an intimate product Groove exposes you, the inner you - it is two-way traffic!

Looking back in time so say, 2002, I had an feeling that Groove the technology was not being fully embraced as a life experience by its own employees. I knew that outside, the partners who are generally smaller organisations were able to embrace the idiom more adeptly. A large organisation takes longer. But I knew, in my heart that Groove themselves could not continue to use and sell Groove the product without fully identifying and accepting the Groove magic. That change has happened over time, employee by employee, thought by thought.

And it is because of this that I can visualize some of where Michael is "at". And in that I say, respect & good luck to the future.

Our support forums are growing...

We now have 55 members with 175 postings. Not bad for a couple for weeks. Much of this my own penmanship, which I hope will change over time. But I feel really pleased with myself when I find a tasty morsel to post that simply does not exist anywhere else.

Today's tip I posted in our Groove Tips section brought out some surprising and surprisingly useful shortcuts you can use inside Groove instant messages and all other places where you enter rich text. And considering the the amount of time a Groover sits there typing...

Ennervating experiences

Nothing blows my mind about Groove more than when I am having a conversation with someone in some part of the world other than the same room as if they were "with me". It get's really wacky when that real-time conversation is with someone a few thousand miles away, and the experience is still as good. Wackiness goes to another level when other people in other places join in, and again from just about anywhere and everywhere.

And then you do this in real-time with several conversations going on with different groups and individuals - all in real time.

And then there is the final dimension. Zero stress. If someone wants to time out to go to the toilet, grab a coffee, have a meeting with other people. Not a problem. Very little if any of that vital contnuitity of thought is threatened. And all particpants resepect that "space".

The result is incredible and astounding productivity where ideas bounce from one person to another in a rising spiral. Where everyone quickly and naturally gets on to the same page.

I challenge ANY other technology to live up to that dream as well as Groove fulfils it - today, yesterday and tomorrow.