PopG Blog

2005-11-09T17:25:00.000Z

Does PopG break the Groove security model?

An anonymous person has commented at http://popg.blogspot.com/2005/11/oh-woe-thrice-woe-i-just-downloaded.html#113150670188932986 that PopG breaks Groove's security model. This is a great point to make and debate to have. And it is both true and untrue.

It is undoubtedly true that adding PopG into the mix changes the security model. The two biggest changes are that data going to and from PopG is encrypted at 128bit rather than Groove's 192bit. Also those who use PopG have to trust PopG to look after their data. But...

Firstly anyone who assumes that ANY data that traverses the Internet, whether it be over Groove, PopG or whatever is secure - needs their head looking at. Any data that leaves your computer, or indeed brain is essentially compromised. The only question is the matter of a risk assessment of one solution over another and choosing one that most closely suits your needs.

Groove's security model is great, but it has its weaknesses. Some of these are discussed on our support forums and on Groove's own forums. PopG's security model is great but it too has its weaknesses. So where is Groove weaker, and stronger with and without PopG?

Groove exposes data held in Groove Folder Sharing spaces whereas PopG does not expose these. So in this instance PopG is more secure. Add optional and chargeable encryption on PopG folders where GFS spaces are stored and even PopG admin staff would not have access.

PopG is another company that you must trust. Initially that may be considered weaker, but any Groove space that is properly protected with Groove's passphrase is as inaccessible to any PopG person (even with full system administrator rights) as it is to any person who steals your laptop. So a question you should ask is if your laptop running Groove is stolen - then how safe is your data? If you consider it safe, then adding PopG to the mix does not change that security model.

Also as alluded to above PopG can enhance its security model to suit customer needs, right up to a dedicated bunkered service.

2005-11-05T11:38:00.000Z

The dos and donts of collaborative space methodology

At http://www.shared-spaces.com/blog/2005/11/why_closed_does.html Micheal Sampson makes some important observations on the values of workspaces. Not that I agree with what he says, at least not entirely. But what he says has a lot of merit and deserves some digestions, and if I may, this response.

His primary assertion is that collaborative workspaces don't work, primarily because they are behind closed doors. His second assertion is that people fallback on Email because of this closed nature. There is no doubt that in many cases collaborative workspaces don't work, and there is equally no doubt that in many other instances they do. The question I would like to ask is why the successes, and the failures.

Before addressing that the fallback to Email is an interesting if not annoying phenomenon. Now let me ask you, dear reader, a question. Hypothetically had the entire world been brought up on collaborative workspaces and Email was the new challenger, would they ever adopt Email? Would Email gain traction in such a climate.

Email suffers badly, very badly from spam, unreliability, security (lack thereof) and a host of other ills. That aside its two undoubted strengths are openness and ubiquity. The fact is that Email is universal. And spammers know how to exploit its openness to their full value. But we all exploit its openness. An email address is a unversally understood concept. A standard.

And so take a look at target markets for collaborative solutions, which are joining the dots on disparate projects, across disparate peoples. In the jargon - working at the "edge", perhaps across company boundaries, across nations, across prejudices.

When working at the edge only full value can be gained if all "project" members can collaborate together. I put project in quotation marks intentionally, because how do you define a project team? In collaborative environments the project team is a very fluid dynamic that can change daily.

With the openness of Email there are few boundaries and so adding new project team members and removing old ones becomes kind-of easy. Kind of.

The primary problem of Email is that there is no concept of a project repository. if you add a new team member to the debate it is almost impossible, and that is worth repeating, almost impossible for you to bring them up to speed without significant human effort. So they join the project in spirit, but not in flesh.

The strength of collaborative workspaces is that they have the repository. Therefore if a new team member joins they get full access to everything, and the instant ability to know and quiz any team member. So they get all the knowledge, and any stress of bringing them up to speed is a shared effort.

Now Micheal asserts that collaborative workspaces are closed, and that this is a weakness. That is a big subject. Let me just say that I belong to some closed private workspaces and they succeed primarily because of their closed nature. The kind of important debates therein simply could not be conceived of in a more ope vehicle. Such spaces do not advertise themselves. Therefore their success is not largely known. But that does not mean they do not exist.

There is a good reason to make some spaces more public, more accessible. And we at PopG do that for the Groove Virtual Office community by explicitly promoting and publicising "public" space, providing public invitations to them and finally providing reliable space delivery mechanisms. It does surprise me that a directory of publicly available spaces is not inherent in the product. But given the larger need for private spaces, at varying levels of privacy (including those with just one member!) I can see why this function is not a top priority.

So Michael, simply because you have not belonged to many successful spaces does not mean that they do not exist, have value, indeed have very significant value. At the top, imho, of the value chain are peace efforts in war torn areas of our unstable world. Groove and other technologies have been used with great effect as a technology aid to help broker peace, where all else seemed doomed to failure.

One final point - on why some spaces fail. It appalls and saddens me when someone tries to put all their eggs in one basket. They abuse the repository and treat it as a general dumping ground. In such cases failure seems part of their desitiny. This is not a fault of the technology - the fault lies in training and support - and misunderstanding.

2005-11-04T22:59:00.000Z

Oh, woe , thrice woe

I just downloaded and installed verosee - a new and potentially useful skype plugin that might offer similar functionality to groove, but using skype as a transport. three woes to think about before you use it.

1. download no 1 at 36 megs. immediately followed by
2. download no 2 at 60 megs.
and then before you even get to see whether the product is at all useful you have to incur
3. subscription at various amounts of $ per month.

Remember this is for a beta product. I object to being charged to support projects at this stage, and I suspect the world at large will do the same. To underline the beta status, the product uses little of standard Windows controls & design. Therefore expect a learning curve for all.

2005-10-08T23:03:00.000Z

Groove heaven at last, Groove performance solved

We at PopG have always prided ourselves providing the best performing Groove installation around. That is not a position we take on easily. Performance is a very personal thing. Performance is about perception. And keeping Groove performing has not been easy. But let us start by looking at performance in general and then we can come back to Groove...

For the last few years Intel have been pushing ever faster CPUs And these are the ultimate in perception statements. Does a new 3.2ghz , 3.6ghz, 4ghz etc processor actually help you type a letter to your bank manager any faster? Probably not. Does it help run Skype better, probably yes. Does it help you talk faster on Skype - definitely not. Does a new CPU announcement help Intel profits, definitely yes. And the same goes for AMD, or whoever. The important thing is that as nice as it is to have a go-faster CPU, that may not help your Groove experience.

The second primary dimension of computer performance is RAM. Until a couple of years ago this was an issue of cost and supply. Then the brakes came off and memory prices dropped and the amount shipped with new computers became at least sensible and at best excellent. So for many people surfing the web today lack of suitable computer memory is a non-issue.

The final attribute of computing that traditionally defines performance is that of your disk subsystem. Today this is where most people fail -and fail badly. Many computer users take the sensible & relatively easy steps to address this area, including addressing the basics of disk fragmentation. Very few go further, and the primary reason for stopping is the relative difficulty in making further inroads. Essentially improving disk performance is an art often reserved for the computer professional whose responsibility it is to address this area.

There is another attribute of computing performance that should be added to these three - Internet connectivity. And if I can demonstrate the potential for improvement in two computers, side by side, both downloading a 300meg file. One was achieving 40kbps, while the other was going at 250kbps. A tune-up on the offending computer by yours truly, a reboot and then both achieved the same performance.

Of all of these disk performance is the one that has held Groove back. What is important to understand is that these are not isolated objects. Fix disk performance and ignore the others and you are wasting your time and energy. Addressing all four primary areas mixed with addressing other aspects of your Groove computer life can lead to a state of Groove heaven.

Perfection in Groove performance is something that I had thought was unattainable. Even with all my pride in understanding of PC technology and Windows computing I thought that Groove would forever be held back. Until recently I felt that Groove would not perform until Longhorn.

Starting around six months ago PopG had taken a position on GFS (Groove File/Folder Sharing) was not supportable. GFS had continually caused extraneous CPU and DISK performance issues. We had had to take a stance that GFS was not to be used by PopG users. It was banned.

Do not think from this that GFS was the entire problem - it was not. Life with GFS was just harder, much harder.

But now the good news. Right now it is possible to run Groove properly on and off PopG. Right now it is possible to use GFS on - and off PopG. The same performance tips have been tested on a range of computers from the latest XP laptops, through a range of w2k and w2k3 servers down to some "obsolete" computers.

Right now your Groove can run at the same speed as any other application on your computer. Right now your computer can run applications along with Groove and not complain.

We welcome enquiries from companies needing to solve their Groove performance issues.

2005-07-10T23:33:00.000Z

Playing with sound statistics

Don't get me wrong I love Skype, but the hype on many web pages is "40 million registered users of Skype". Now on-line I only ever see 1.5 million - and I am on-line with skype 24/7. Which means there are 38.5 million dissatisfied ex-Skype users out there.

So who is right - the 1.5 million die-hards like myself, or the 38.5 million who went away?

2005-07-08T06:45:00.000Z

London, from Olympics to Bombs

Our support goes out to those involved and hurt in yesterday's atrocities. Thank you to those around the Groove globe for your expressions of concern. No-one at PopG was directy or indirectly afected. But we will do what very little we can to assist.

2005-07-03T08:44:00.000Z

Becoming a Supernode is an increasing liability of P2P technology, and for some a dangerous one!

A favoured technique of improving P2P technology performance such as Kazaa, Skype and indeed Groove is the establishment of Supernodes. A supernode takes on more responsibility and works on behalf of fellow peers to provide better performance, greater responsiveness, faster throughput. And without them many P2P technolgies would simply collapse into a heap of dissatisfied customers.

Here is Skype's definition on supernodes: "A Supernode is a computer running Skype Software that has been automatically elevated to act as a hub. Supernodes may assist in helping other users to communicate or use the Skype Software efficiently. This may include the ability for your computer to help anonymously and securely facilitate communications between other users of the Skype software who, due to network and firewall constraints, cannot establish direct connections."

So who becomes a supernode. Typically it is a question of availability of computer resources including Internet connectivity. This sounds good. "I have more, so why shouldn't I share it?" More capacity may be measured in terms of spare disk space, CPU, RAM, Internet bandwidth and firewall characteristics, 24/7 availability and perhaps other criteria. Each application will make its own decisions.

The key and dangerous point is that you "the user" typically has no choice. Your computer is automatically elevated to supernode and there's little you can do a about it. But why should you? Surely you are helping great Internet technologies work, helping them work better. And you are sharing your computer riches with others less fortunate. So what's wrong with that?

Well, it turns out that people who are using File Sharing technologies to flaunt copyright with such things as MP3 downloads are much more likely to be attacked by authorities if they are a supernode. So if you are breaking, or helping others potentially break copyright, then putting your head above the parapet as a supernode is one silly way of drawing attention to yourself and risking prosecution.

But it there are other problems with becoming supernodes as well. This I call supernode saturation. The problem is that anyone using P2P technology does not stop at just one application. They say to themselves "Direct Connect is good, so what other P2P technology can I use". So they come across Skype, Groove, Jajahand who knows what else. Suddenly you have a computer running a range of P2P applications. What happens next?

Go back to the premise of being a supernode and the logical conclusion is that each application makes a very similar decision and suddenly your computer, and I mean your computer becomes a supernode for each and every application. Suddenly your bigger and better and faster computer is suddenly becoming saturated with supernode demands. I mean, face it, Skype is not going to say in its supernode logic, "ah this computer has already become a supernode for Kazaa, so we won't become a supernode for Skype." No, in fact if anything the opposite may be true.

The result is that having a fast computer with full-on high-capacity Internet connectivity is making your P2P life hell. Suddenly all your P2P applications are competing head-on for the same resources - not for your benefit, but for the benefit on non-supernodes. And there is nothing you can do about it, and you may not even know it is happening to you. All you know is that you are not getting the good application service that others are reporting.

2005-06-13T19:21:00.000Z

Guessing games

At http://www.tekrati.com/T2/Analyst_Research/ResearchAnnouncementsDetails.asp?Newsid=5300 Shared Spaces guru Michael Sampson take Microsoft to task for acquiring Groove Networks in the chosen manner. I have not had the benefit of the full report, but its headlines & conclusion I feel are off target. Let's start with the headline "...Door open to competitors". Er yes, collaboration is a busy & competitive marketplace and personally I would have thought the acquisition would be throwing a gauntlet down to others. And yes I can see a door is closing on others if they do not address their failings. So let us agree that at best the clock is ticking.

Operating close to this technology since stealth mode ended I feel the timing is about as good for MS as it could be. It has obtained a maturing product that can provide good sales extensions to the life of Office with minimum investment & risk. Not only that it now can provide added value to the Windows operating system itself.
Was Groove the right company for MS to acquire? Over the years possibly worthy competitors for acquisition have come and gone. Groove has justified itself to be the appropriate one by aligning itself over time; the result almost became a forgone conclusion.

Finally four years to impact. Well, as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. And so I can only agree. This project, imo, is redefining planet Internet. I don't expect perfection overnight. And that's the bottom line for me - this "thing" just ain't that simple, otherwise Lotus Notes/Domino would have been a 28meg downloadable 10 years ago, instead of the 28 CDs that Domino seems to distribute with (I exaggerate, slightly)! For another company to catch up is a big challenge.

I hope that others do capture some ground. What moves computing on is companies leapfrogging. But my guess is they will have a job doing it!

2005-06-07T11:30:00.000Z

Trustworthy Computing

Trust is an odd thing. Some people, sadly imo, distrust others from the outset - perhaps due to a bad previous experience. Most people start with a new person with a reasonable level of trust, giving them the "benefit of doubt". Should that trust be broken in some way, then the trust level goes down and sadly that is not always commensurate with the incident.

What makes matters worse is that when trust goes down it can tend to move to become a two-way distrust. In such cases misinterpretation of words and deeds abound and the cycle of distrust can get worse until a point of non-communication arrives. And after non-communication comes action. This may start by physical separation, and very sadly in extreme cases move on to violence. A downward spiral of distrust that is possibly at the heart of many of the world's conflicts.

On the other hand if time goes by and little or no sense of breaking of trust happens, and also supported by opposite happenings... That is if trust gets better then it is mutually supportive. And the spiral of improved trust just gets better.

What makes the upward and downwad spirals different is the speed. Going up is a long slow and steady climb.

Another feature of upward trust building is risk taking bursts, This is when one or both parties take risks of trust to "get to the next level". For example company A hires company B to do a job. They take a risk in company B and manifest that in a contract & commitment. Company A may make up-front payments in good faith, as a sign of its risk. Company B may need to take on board resources such as people for periods that extend well beyond this contract in order to fill this one, in the hope that others may follow.

That's life. And there is nothing new in the above. So why mention it? Because in Groove this is all thrown in to very sharp focus, all day, every day, with everyone you talk to. Groove is the ultimate Trustworthy Computing system.

This means that when you talk over Groove you commit yourself more than you would if you communicate over E-mail, for instance. What you say in Groove, you write in your blood.

And those spirals? They simply happen in Internet time.

You might argue then you should say as little as possible. Unfortunately that does not work. Silence is very obvious and every time you are silent on a key subject everyone else downmarks you automatically.

Fortunately for me there are no real bad marks for gramar punctuation ant splnk.

2005-05-30T23:50:00.000Z

Fluid communication

I had a discussion tonight where people expressed the need for real meetings. While I am not one to deny the full value of face to face meetings, there are simply not enough hours in the day for you to meet with everyone who wants or needs to meet you, and vice versa. This problem gets worse when one considers the need for meetings of groups and pairs - and "private time". And also when you do often is that a totally satisfactory experience for all parties, and indeed can you define such satisfaction?

In Groove we have various tools for communication. Our primary tools are
- chat
- IM
- discussion threads
- file sharing
- and the richness of spaces
- and the richness of tools such as ActiCam

These all work both synchronously and async.. For all parties, independently. This is very , very powerful. It is impossible to underplay this importance.

This means that any party can come into a conversation and drop out, temporarily or permanently as they see fit. Totally independently of any other parties decisions. They can drop out once, or a hundred times. They can drop out & return without causing offence, intentional or unintentional, and critically without loss of productivity.

By contrast imagine having a real meeting of 5 people and some of those walking in and out of the room every minute or two. Such action would be an insult and would severely hamper productivity. In Groove this is the norm and no-one worries about it for an instant.

In Groove you can operate several meetings in parallel - with ease. This means that any late breaking information from one could be brought to bear on another - just at the right moment, rather than a week later when the "iron has gone cold".

In Groove meetings are decided by the needs of the moment, not by the needs of a committe a week or a month ago.

You may ask what is a meeting in such a world. To me a meeting is a "meeting of minds". It is when one person says something that is as nearly fully understood by the other as is humanly possible. The opportunity in Groove for misinterpretation are naturally diminished and so the quality of communication goes as near to perfection as possible.

And underpinning this is a flexibility and fluidity that make me very sad when I hear of real meetings that are stressful. Let me just say - it does not need to be that way. There is a better way.

Do yourself a favor and indulge in some fluid communication. Do this to the full and when you have a real meeting it will increasingly become a celebration.

2005-05-27T16:19:00.000Z

A wasted opportunity?

PopG was not involved in the Bande Aceh part of Tsunami recovery. As commented on in http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1791567,00.asp the Groove involvement was less effective because of lack of high-bandwidth availability. PopG adds value to low-bandwidth "last mile" by fixing the bandwidth at somewhere between 1kbps and 30kbps. Considering dialup modems tend to operate at 56kbps that can be plenty good enough. Once the user is hooked into Groove on the PopG service they can have high-quality bandwidth - the kind that Grooe Virtual Office loves!

2005-04-24T16:19:00.000Z

Support forums goes past its next marker

Latest stats of over 200 members to check out our 450 posts this is nothing compared with the big forums, and nothing compared with Groove's own forums. But the unique content and angles must be doing something right since 25% of membership come back regularly to keep in touch with the issues that matter.

I would appreciate some help if anyone knows the solution to a small problem. Some people who register cannot get into the content even though they register properly. It turns out that the "remember password" checkbox works for most people, but for a small group needs unchecking.

When unchecked everyone can logon and access the content. When checked some people keep on getting asked for username & password. I have tried all manner of cookie settings and updates. I have verified this as a problem on several OSs. But as yet no solution.

Andy thoughts?

2005-04-18T16:12:00.000Z

"Don't tell me how to collaborate, I do it all the time!"

Your worst nightmare is someone who egotistically sates something like the above. Perhaps they do not say it so much in words, perhaps their body language says more. Society has been organised, perhaps misorganized around the concept of leaders. The autocratic leader thinks their job is to tell others what to do. This could be done in terms of dictating processes, "do this, do that". It could be couched in a "this is what I do, so you had better do the same if you want to keep your job!" kind of emotion. Our world is full of such people. These people tend to push for what they want by bullying techniques.

Well, the world is changing. The future climate is moving more towards decision by consensus. A major tool of the bully is ignorance. If you keep a measure of "control of information" then you can maintain control of people. The Internet is here so stay and it is making fundamental changes in how society operates.

Take the UK election that is in progress at the moment. It used to be that the media controlled people's thoughts so much. In 1979 "The Sun" newspaper proudly boasted that they were the ones who were the deciding factor in getting Maragaret Thatcher into power as the 1980's. Could they have the same influence today? Broadband is now very common in the UK. A lot of people simply do not buy newspapers anymore. The result is that far more people get their news from the Internet than they do from printed paper. And although The Sun has a website it is competing on a playing field with a million other news feeds and "sexy" websites, not to mention comic sites. In short any monopoly on information and attitude is being continually eroded.

As we all become more "informed" we can better criticize. We can better judge if what others say is valid for us. And so collaboration of the future is less about "hear what I say and follow", andd more about "discuss and consider".

The challenge for companies right now is that they are largely led at higher and middle level management in the old style. In embracing new collaborative technolgies such as Groove management style will change. And if particular management personnel cannot adapt fast enough then they will find their jobs threatened and new less abrasive and more collaborative and supportive management styles become pre-requisites at the job interview. And then they will learn how to do it all the time. Then they will do 21st Century collaboration, their job prospects will depend on it.

2005-04-10T13:38:00.000Z

"Suffer, baby suffer"

This line comes from the joke about the elephant and a fly who annoys him. I am not a good joke teller so I won't bore you. But what I will say is that people who use Groove suffer in silence when a new person gets invited to a substantial space. They suffer in silence when some adds a large file or folder to a Groove space.

Next time you are faced with Groove consuming your computer so that you have to leave it to "sort itself out", think to yourself "Andy said there was another way, perhaps now is the time to prove him wrong!" The other way leave you free to get on with Groove with full productivity every instant of the day.

I addressed a posting on the Groove forums - someone had a Dell Latitude with a 1.1ghz processor and 1gig ram. And Groove was struggling. I simply say that if you are tired of suffering then it is time to think of PopG.

2005-04-04T11:41:00.000Z

Getting IT Right...

It is very easy to see when something is wrong. IT is very easy to criticise. But how do you get IT right, whatever IT is, and how do you know IT is right. And how do you keep IT right!

Here are some feelings that I hold, for myself, as possibly painful truths:

- When something is wrong people will do one of two things depending upon whether they care about IT. If they do not care, then IT will die or more likely morph. If they care about IT then they will criticize YOU. They will not criticise IT, because largely they do not know what IT is.

- Getting IT right takes considerable pain, graft and time. And all the time you are largely alone. And often to get IT right you have to move the goalposts, never to return.

- When something is right everything else thinks, "that's easy, what's the problem, that's the way we have always done it" - except they haven't, ever.

- Being right is a magical mix, an intangible something. And unfortunately being right is not permanent, it may often be very brief.

- Even when IT is right some will say IT is wrong.

- Keeping IT right takes the same effort as getting it right. And still you are alone. The reason being that keeping IT right is simply going to the next level.

- In the end there is no end, only the road, the lonely that leads there. Along that road relax and enjoy the wayside inns, you deserve them and you need the brief respite they offer.

2005-04-04T00:18:00.000Z

Washing dirty linen...

As something less than a mere mortal (sorry if that sounds pompous!) I would not want to say much on the pros and cons of the acquisition of Groove by Microsoft. It is obvious that others have more to say in public and will do so. Recent attempts to alter (politically correct way of saying stop) the progress of the acquisition seem to be failing. Doing this "in public" is often considered a good thing - democracy in action.

One area in which Groove the technology excels is in privacy - far away from the public eye. This is also a good thing in some circumstances. If Groove was being used as a brokering solution to help to warring factions to "discuss" without guns or bombs, then doing that talk in front of the full gaze of the media all the time is unlikely to ever lead to a peaceful result. The inclusion of the media in the "discussion process" can often hinder if not increase communication problems.

This is not because the media is necessarily a bad thing - it is more to do perhaps with simply adding in a third person, and in particular a third person whose sole goal is not to mediate. Two people talking can sometimes resolve an issue. If they cannot resolve then a go-between may be needed to help beging make some joins. The media never plays the role of a broker. The media's role is to communicate the current status to a distant third party - the public. In playing a part in senisitive discussions they can often add to stress levels and actually reduce likelyhood and speed of resolution.

In these columns I have done some washing. I have sometimes been honest about my own failings, at other times I have been more open some of Groove's, and nearly always the target has been Groove the technology. The purpose being to raise the profile of what I am seeing as a serious issue. I take, as a self-proclaimed expert the guise of a champion of those suffering with some aspect of the Groove technology. One classic example was space suspensions, which now are dramatically reduced.

So washing dirty linen in public can be good and it can also be bad. Perceptions of what is good and bad change over time. The death of the Pope (and I am not religious) marks a possible change in attitude to things that the Catholic church held dear. A new Pope will have different priorities, and the illnesses and deaths caused by Aids in Africa and elsewhere makes pontificating on birth control, or not a difficult thing. So perhaps the new Pope may have a changing stance. I live in hope.

Closer to home my parents, like many others of their generation hardly ever talk about illness. It is simply not the done thing! Well it is something I do with my children. Some may say I am a wishy-washy liberal, which I am not. What I am is a person with new attitudes. My attitudes to what is said in public are very far removed (I would say improved) from my parents. And I guess and hope that my childrens' attitude will move on from my own.

The most glaring and personal example of "dirty linen" is when someone is taken before a court of law, and perhaps sent to prison or fined. For business that might be bankruptcy or is it chapter 11. A softer metaphor for this is in some cases acquistion!

We all hoped that Groove would make it, for the good of the employees, shareholders et al. That success did not happen, and the reasons were not all of Groove's own making. But right now a new era is dawning. I wonder what it will bring? Hopefully some clean linen at last since my bed is getting smelly and needs some new sheets :-).

2005-03-30T19:10:00.000Z

The digital join...

Those of you who know me will know why I love technologies such as Citrix and Groove, and why the mix is so... awe inspiring. The reason is simple - they are both democratising. They both empower.

Citrix and other server based computing technologies are democratising because they can provide exceptional power almost equally to a much wider range of computers and thus to people. They do this by off-loading CPU, RAM and DISK demands to powerful servers. No longer do you need a powerhouse Windows-XP laptop to run the worlds most demanding programs. I have run Microsoft Office-97 on a DOS 286 computer with really good performance. The only thing letting it down was poor graphics, and the 386 gave that a leg up!

Groove also is a democratising technology. Its "always on" security, its "off-line" abilities, its "I'm in space, and I'm sorted" mentality are just exceptional concepts. But Groove is a demanding bit of kit. New high-spec laptops/desktops are strongly recommended if not a necessity. And they always will be. Computer prices don't really drop. What happens is that functionality goes up and more demanding software becomes the norm. And Groove fits that mold.

The key next steps in the digital join are integrating more technologies, and especially those that drop to mobile phones. Fortunately today we are blessed with more smart devices that can hook into the power of terminal service based solutions. And thus today at PopG we are able to deliver incredible and unbelieveable democratising power to down to what will be the most ubiquitous computer on the planet - Phones, PDAs and Palms and the like.

The melting pot called PopG breaks many computing limitations. By joining the two ends of the computing spectrum it provides the best possible computing options imagineable for the "digitally challenged". At http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3742817 the economist completely ignores the web in its discussion of the digital divide, treating it as an irrelevance. Any more articles like that and the Economist might become an irrelevance! With funding we can join the divide.

2005-03-22T20:19:00.000Z

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand"

Is this chinese saying Ray Ozzie's mantra?

2005-03-22T07:55:00.000Z

Does your team GET collaboration?

A successful Groove project is about "collaboration". If one team member is dead set against collaboration then Groove may not be right for your team! A reason why Groove projects do not work is that a minority of the team do not "get", or even want to get collaboration.

The benefits of collaboration include:
- speeding up of the processes by
- removal of bottlenecks
- greater personal satisfaction to all players
- greater feelings of being part of a team
- better focus on the goal

If one or more team players (cough!) only play lip service to working in "a team" then Groove as a solution will not work. If a team player is not really a team player then they may need specific training. And if that fails you may need a replacement team member!

I often think that job interviews for team players ought to include "the Groove test". If an interviewee fails the Groove test then, by definition, they are not a team player. Certainly if your team is committed to Groove then there is no point having someone join the team who does not get it. If you have someone working in your project team who does not sign up to Groove then they can demoralise the whole team.

You need 100% support. 90% support does not mean 90% success, it means 100% failure. You need 100% support.

Groove is peer-to-peer at a technology level, but that is not all: it is is also peer-to-peer at a human level. Make sure your team can repeat that kind of thought as the team mantra.

2005-03-21T13:40:00.000Z

We all want something for nothing, and on the Internet we want to pay even less!

So much of the success of the Internet is that so much of it is free. Not only that but, for those who are open to new ideas, the Internet is helping to drive down costs. And on some occasions the savings can be extraordinary. I am often shocked by the restrictions that most US people find that their telecoms suppliers place upon them. We are a UK company and we are fortunate that our call costs supporting people in the USA are less and more flexible than for many US citizens. So the good news is that if you shop around that costs can come down.

The other side of the coin is that when you are selling your prices are under continual pressure - downward. And so much of the Internet is free. Free websites, free knowledge, free support and free downloads. Groove has its trial edition which gives 60-days "free use", PopG has 14 days. Where does it end? Because in the end each of us has to pay bills, personal and business.

One way of extending "freeness" is with advertising and other forms of sponsorship. In the end this means you supplying marketing information at least and possibly rising to a sale. And that is how the Internet stays "free". So many websites now carry googleads, amazon links or other advertsing driven links. This is how you pay, this is how costs are kept down.

Until, at some point you have to pay for a product or service. And then what you want is something called "quality". Quality to me is about appropriateness, no-one wants a Ferrari to do some off-road driving, and I hope you don't get to drive round a high-speed test track in a tractor.

2005-03-21T08:17:00.000Z

Does Sharing imply Caring?

I have been staggered at the supportive efforts of people with whom I have communicated over Groove. From my side I also try to give that same kind support wherever and whenever. In my mind this is part of what this wacky technology is about. And that, perhaps I am naive, is why I do not mind any military person or group getting access to this technology. If a future redefinition of the word "military" moves towards the term caring, can that be a bad thing? If the sub-plot of Groove is to become a supportive influence across groups, across societies, across strife torn zones.

Groove is not alone here: there are other new technologies such as Wiki, Blogs and more that are redefining how we communicate and opening up new and useful options. Conflict breaks out when communication breaks down. Bring in a range of proven technologies that provide a breadth of techniques to maintain the slightest strand of talks open at least, and with any glimmer of hope actually provide a framework to move those talks forward, even to the stage when people can communicate verbally.

In my book sharing does imply caring, and making a sometimes subtle, yet almost always positive difference to society.

2005-03-21T00:16:00.000Z

Sharing is never easy

Start with human relationships and add in a warp factor nine of technology, and it is not surprising that sharing sometimes feels more like suffering. But as with good human relationships, if you work at this then the elation of success is something else.

2005-03-19T16:47:00.000Z

The ten stages of learning Groove

We are all afraid when approaching some new technology. Learning Groove is no different

1. I am happy with what I use today (eg E-mail) and should not look elsewhere
2. Ouch that hurts, but everyone else is suffering with E-mail and there probably is nothing better and I don't have time to look
3. Ouch that hurts, hmm...
4. Ouch that really hurts, perhaps there is another way
5. Ok, perhaps I'll have a look at Groove
6. What, that looks complicated, don't understand that
7. Oh, that was easy and cool
8. Ouch, that Groove hurts, are you sure this is worth it?
9. Ouch that really hurt, but some bits aren't bad at all
10. Now I've got it. I am not going back. There is pain in the new system but I can do so much more. I am not going back.

2005-03-18T18:17:00.000Z

Exposure of pain points, is it good or bad?

In the UK we are justifyably proud of Ellen MacArthur for sailing round the world faster than anyone else. One thing that is part of her character is exposing that she is human, that she is fallable. Translate that into an organisation and what do you get? Do the same with society, nationhood...

Traditionally society, companies and individuals hide their problems. My parents in common with their generation do not talk about ailments, even in front of family. But that is changing.

Right or wrong the advent of blogs permit people to openly express to the world their opinion on the life, unverse et al with termedous ease. Sometimes as employees they may overstep the bounds of "company regulations", possibly as ex-employees they feel more "freedom" and if the separation was not mutually happy (is it ever?) then perhaps they do that with a tinge of angst.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. In building PopG, one rule I have kept to my heart is "there are no rules." Therefore I have defined PopG as a new company, a company with new mores, my mores. Readers of my blog, website, forums should get a sense of touching something real, something tangible. In this virtual world we co-habit we are alive, and we should be proud of it.

2005-03-18T18:13:00.000Z

and in the beginning...

"While Groove is starting with Windows, the company can run the software on Linux and has plans to extend Groove to handheld devices. Groove is also looking closely at Apple Computer's Mac OS X and could in the future release a version of the software for that operating system. Mac OS X is in beta testing, with a release scheduled for early next year. " Cnet, 2000 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-247492.html?legacy=cnet

2005-03-17T21:57:00.000Z

"PopG based Groove is seen as a liberating technology"

That is how www.info-share.org see things from Sri Lanka as they look back at the early days of post-Tsunami. If you want to read the full report on the technologies used read http://denver.popg.net/pub/popg_docs/IS%20and%20Tsunami.pdf which, looking forward emphasises the values of mobile technologies such as phones in such an aftermath.

2005-03-17T10:30:00.000Z

Sorting out a real dogs dinner

It seems to me that over time increasingly Groove has been plagued with installation problems. I used to be of the opinion that this was Groove's fault: not any longer. Right now I believe that installing software on Windows is becoming very complex and indeed so complex that it is in danger of failing if even the smallest thing is wrong..

In common with many other software providers Groove uses the widely used, InstallShield. In trying to analyse Groove's installation problems I came across a relevant InstallShield patch page. And I am amazed. I was expecting something like "if there is a problem, uninstall and re-install". Of course this is InstallShield, and given the nature of its task, I might expect to see something out of the ordinary. Nothing has prepared me for this.

The page http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q108322 has so many different ways of "fixing" InstallShield depending on this that and the other that I can only draw the conclusion that something else is wrong. Something is wrong with the principles of how all this works.

If resolving installation problems with InstallShield is difficult then what on earth is a complex application like Groove and its user community going to do downstream... Suffer is my only conclusion, and suffer they do.

I have been through so many installation faults and issues on behalf of Groove users, on behalf of PopG. I have worked with Groove support staff, and as yet no magic fomula has ever appeared to solve the problem. And as I say I used to think it was Groove's fault. This is not a short term problem: this has been around for several years. And as I say, I think it is getting worse. Perhaps it is now time to ask - is there another installer?

2005-03-16T12:12:00.000Z

A Duck-billed Platliccation?

Right from day one the Groove lexicon was challenged around what it delivered, what it was and what it was perceived to be. Terms such as operating system virtual office, workspace, application, platform, file sharing... The words went on.

I guess the starting point must have been an economic one - people will not pay for a platform. A platform looks too much like TCP/IP - and should be free, whereas it is well thumbed that people buy applications. From a sales perspective people buy products. And in a competitive marketplace such as collaboration I guess this was an image that both haunted and drove Groove forward.

Having made the decision to go as an application the sales / marketing challenges are then head-on against technical challenges. The platform must be part of the solution. Whatever else you do you must have the platform. The platform contains all the replication and encryption technology.

On top of the platform comes the application, the GUI, the manifestation, the thing people buy. So there are different models for the application. Build a light app with an API, SDK and so on and support a developer community to complete the apps. Or build higher-level development environments such as the Forms sandbox, which is where we are now.

But the core problem with the application is how far do you go? Do you progress a small number of comprehensive tools, or do you spread your resources thinly and try to create a wide range of shallow and possibly incomplete tools.

And all the time you are needing to break new ground with the platform and suddenly you cannot do everything, and the part that always loses out is the application. That, in my opinion must have been and still be the core challenge. The platform.

As many readers will know I spend considerable time supporting people with teething problems on the Support Forums and it was partly because of this effort that we launched our own forums. We are please this becoming a comprehensive, independent and strictly alternative resource for those interested in Groove (end of sales pitch :-))

Essentially the platform is still biting back. I have predicted that GFS spaces will still take some time to resolve. I could easily argue that it will not stabalize until Longhorn. But it is not just the platform. And it is not just the app.

It is the perception. A new person starts to use Groove and finds it seductively easy. Downstream some problems begin to appear and it is very difficult for the user to control their own problems. Part of the challenge here was that an oft-stated goal of Groove is that it should be "easy".

Being easy was translated into very little monitoring, and very little debugging tools or facilities. And any that were supplied were very opaque or only available to the minority. This has in my eyes been one of the biggest failures. It has meant that users of whatever stature have been working blind. That has mean that the positive feedback loop required for a rapid and effective development cycle was left open. Despite many and frequent pleas for ANYTHING that would help Groove advocates help Groove help themselves we were met with nothing in this arena.

So even today the platform is dogged with trivia such as outbound alerts that we have to "take on trust" to have arrived. Even today we are met with cpu and disk problems that turn off new customers.

The perception is that Groove has many very Beverley's & Boston's brighest: a group of people who have an unshakeable self-belief. I just hope that some mediocre people from MS come along and provide some much needed balance.

2005-03-15T15:27:00.000Z

A silent prayer

I am not religious in any way. But it has been difficult for me, along with everyone else not to be touched by the Tsunami disaster on Boxing Day 2004. From our remote island of Great Britain such problems can only seem remote: or can they.

In our little way we were able to provide assistance to http://www.info-share.org who were in the thick of things in their home of Sri Lanka. Inside our closetted Groove world, I and other Groovers were able to find out, in real time what was happening on the ground, and indeed still is.

Throughout all that time I have struggled in vain to sum up the disaster. I have blogged very little on the subject because of this. The people who are able to express things most clearly are those who talk from first hand experience.

If you do nothing else read http://comment.cio.com/weighin/022805.html and consider the perspective of one person who speaks for himself and others on the front line.

2005-03-15T06:44:00.000Z

Trust is everything

Absolutely everything we do successfully is built on trust. The lesser the trust the greater the risk and likelihood of failure. Trust a matter of rights and responsibilities for each player. Every balanced contract will ensuring each party's rights and responsibilities clearly down on paper. Except that words are not enough to define trust, so what is written tends to be protection against the negatives, and hardly ever the positive. The positive is left to the imagination in that far more eloquent ether of the imagination.

eBay has an interesting take on trust. If you go into a shop and complain about something you can shout to the top of your voice. You can write a letter or talk to the owner. You can write to a newspaper.

Who hears your complaint? Which of those might be influential shoppers interested in the same product or service as yourself? Probably only a very small percentage hear or read. As soon as you are out of the shop the shop can continue business as if you had never happened. The chances of many relevant people reading a newspaper article about your problem is a chance in a thousand.

No so with eBay. When you buy or sell something on eBay every single purchaser or buyer has the quick and easy ability to see whether to trust you or not. They can do this with the most relevant information possible - recent purchases and sales.

And this is very powerful and is so easy to use that it is used by almost every shopper or seller. And there are many eBay'ers who go further and refuse to sell or buy from people who do not have a high trust rating!

My "better half" has recently got into eBay and is extremely proud of her 100% rating to date. She looks forward to that rating being enhanced. How can you get better than 100%? With that percentage is a concept of track record. In eBay this is measured in stars. Stars provide a measure of history, of depth to someone's quality. Add that to the percentage and you have very quick and metrics that are so easily understood.

eBay is not unique in this system. epinions.com is another interesting example. At epinions you rate not only products and services but people who comment. After that the result is very similar to eBay. Direct access to something that could not be enshrined in words in contractual form, no matter what your skill level as a wordsmith.

Such Internet based systems are a new trust paradigm. That is that you cannot get away from who you are and your record is easily accessible by the people who matter.

But with eBay and Epinions you can escape. With most web technologies you can escape. You can restart with yet another E-mail address. You can easily start over with a new identity.

With Groove you cannot so easily restart. In fact it is almost impossible to restart. Your identity is tied to an account. Your account is fixed, enshrined and bound to you and your digital signature.

Yes you can start a new account - but then you break with your Groove history and the new trust rating is almost zero on any new account. And you aren't going anywhere until your trust level grows.

Trust ratings in Groove are based on consistency. Consistency of a very soft thing - provable dialogue. These are intangible assets but very powerful ones. Everything you say and do in Groove is stamped by date and account.

The trust model is extended by space membership. By being in "a space" other space members assume you are bona-fide. Again this is a very soft measure of trust, but very powerful.

If and that is a big IF, someone should compromise your Groove account and do a bit of identity theft, yes they could steal the information that is available to you at that instant. But to spoof you, your phrases, your computer manner is an almost inconceivable thing.

And that is what makes Groove different. And that is why Bill "trustworthy computing" Gates is acquiring Groove.

2005-03-14T11:15:00.000Z

No man is an island!

I have often tried to work out what it is about Groove that makes it stand out. What is it that makes it so more-ish. What is it that make me such an evangelist. What it is that... oh, get on with it Swarbrick.

Well I have recently struck up yet another deep and meaningful conversation over Groove conversation. That is not meant to be disparaging in any way. rarely is a conversation over Groove anything else. Whereas in Email it is difficult to be personal - unless one already has a good relationship. This deepness and meaningfulness is a mutual thing that all participants who partake of the Groove communication at that moment feel.

This is why so many small businesses feel inherently that Groove is an atractive technology. Suddenly they are no longer alone in such a large and possibly predatory world. Suddenly they can "party" with people from anywhere in the world (even next door!) and strike up a common agenda and negotiate it in an easy and stress-free way towards a mutually beneficial result.

Being alone is a horrible depressing thing - stick with E-mail at your peril! Become part of the 21st century and get off that island.

2005-03-11T00:54:00.000Z

Groove has died, long live Groove!

At PopG we welcome today's announcement of the takeover of Groove Networks by Microsoft. We see this as a vote for Groove as being THE collaboration platform for the future. It would have been great for Groove's founders to do it alone, but times are tough out there and Groove is one great product that deserves a future.

Back in 2002 Groove and PopG had their altercations, all satisfatorily resolved for both parties I might add. But altercations none the less. Part of my agenda of sticking by the PopG business from that defining moment, was my personal belief that somehow something had been spawned that was bigger than the company that spawned it. Today's announcement indicates Microsoft have recognised something of that value as well.

Hmm, Bill, perhaps you and I should swap jobs - if only for a day? Sorry, only joking, running PopG would be a tough call.

2005-03-08T11:38:00.000Z

Support forums reach the ton

Well the forums continue to grow with 322 posts. I know in the overall scheme of large and popular forums where stats are measured in the 1000's per hour this is a drop in the ocean. But it is better than I had hoped and if people continue to find our support forums rewarding then it is worthwhile

2005-03-03T12:11:00.000Z

Take Two

At http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/970479.stm the BBC reported on the "Blueprint for the E-University". And if you look behind the laudable statements the cracks (with 2020 hindsight) are obvious from the outset.

Fault Line No 1: "to make the UK a leading player in the booming market for "virtual" learning over the web", says David Blunkett. This is a strategic government announcement. Another lurch of money to show that "we are doing things". That bodes well, for some.

Fault Line No 2: "The e-University offers a way of harnessing that energy and expertise in a way that all can benefit from." so says a leading University, in this case York. What is really going on is that Universities need money so any new bandwagon that carries a fat cheque is welcome news, especially if you are at the epicentre. The statements from that quarter wholly justify the status-quo. It could be rephrased, "We have been doing it since the 12th-century, so we know best, and we are going to show these new upstarts a thing or two." Well, you sure did.

Fault Line No 3: "Cost-Effective." Well, you sure proved yourselves experts in that field!

Fault Line No 4: "We start from an excellent base. We have world-class technology infrastructure, outstanding skills in our universities and colleges, and some global technology-related companies to collaborate with. ", says Hefce's leader Sir Brian Fender. Market-speak of the first order. They are suggesting the work with the market leaders. This is the Internet for pity's sake. Are yesterday's market leaders ever going to come up with anything innovative that propels us forward? No they are going to ply their existing wares - necause that is where their investment lies. To promote anything at all innovative is counter-productive to their own profit margins. The absolute classic of this thinking was when IBM suggested the worldwide market for the single-user computer was 40,000 at absolute most. And a small unknown company called Microsoft was born.

2005-03-03T10:14:00.000Z

David vs Goliath, and both lost

Yet another stage in the death-knell of the UK E-university saga rang last night (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4311791.stm), and it makes me so embarrassed & jealous and a 100 other adjectives. I skim-read the compendium of the e-university (http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/1641.htm) and it shouts out at you why the failure occured. (You have to skim read, the bible seems shorter.) This was a project with huge amounts of UK taxpayer money spent primarily on people with egos and pensions. It was spent on someone trying to play inside the Internet "by committee". It was a top-down approach with no bottom up feel. And perhaps there is another angle.

The report makes as an excuse the dotcom bust. But I have to ask why were they playing as a committee in an entrepreneurs world? The whole premise is laughable, except it just makes me want to cry. It makes me cry because you can see someone saying "oh, Tom go round all the higher education colleages and report back." So Tom spends six months travelling round, building up his pension plan. And for every Tom there is an Alice and a Jo, because this organisation needed to do its research throroughly. It was going to get things right! So all these teams come back, write their reports, and these get aggregated up into larger more complex reports that committees contemplate, and contemplate. And all the time the £££ are being spent.

And therein lies the first problem. A key to success in the Internet is the ability to react, instantly. An ability to get ahead. An ability to read an opportunity and turn a business plan on its head within 24 hours. We use PayPal for our e-commerce. They have their problems as a company, but they also do a lot of things very very well. They wouldn't have 50m customers if they did not. They did not start by researching all the traditional banking organisations. They did not send teams around gleaning facts and figures. They spotted a niche and pressed that advantage home. In the early days, pressing that advantage meant changing their business model as often as a new customer joined them.

So how is this relevant to PopG & Groove? In our time we have had far more success in e-learning on just about every statistic you could imagine than the e-university ever had. Our deployment model is so far superior we are on another planet. Our education customers include CalState, University of California, Stokholm University, Creighton University and the University of Western Ontario. Meeting their needs is not easy. They are demanding, not least in that they want to keep costs down. And how have we done this?

Well we haven't written reports of 1000's pages. We spotted an excellent technology - Groove and another one - Citrix. We realised that these are at the opposite ends of one measure of computing - server based computing versus peer to peer computing. We took two diametrically opposite technologies and we welded them together. Our insight is that together they work. Our IP is in the welding, and it is something that many others have tried and seem to have failed at.

And lest we forget, that other angle. What small companies are good at is spotting and exploring that niche. One goal of the UK E-university could be said to be to create a 21st Century edition of the Open University. A large organisation stacked full of the well-qualified and the well-meaning. Does that work? Just take a look at the way society is moving - the increasing proliferation of small companies will not abate. We are no longer in the era of mega-sized companies. In the microcosom that PopG inhabits we fit incredibly well into our mould. We shape that mould. We react and morph. And so many other companies are doing the same. This is the age of the entrepreneur, the age of diversification. So how on earth could anyone expect one solution fit all? One reason for our success is the ability to spot that niche and emphasise and apply our strengths. Dovetail.

And so we struggle on from project to project, improving our business bit by bit, thinking why for f**s sake won't the government encourage start up companies more effectively (with the emphasis on the word startup). There is a world we can beat out there. I just wonder how many more time the UK Government has to spend £50m on just 900 students, how many more large egos need satiating, before it realises that it has got something fundamentally wrong, and I don't just mean the UK E-University.

2005-03-02T22:41:00.000Z

www.225964951-1.com is available!

Come on why not grab some real real estate - the world's largest prime number. Surely this has to be worth something to any self-respecting mathematician. Read more at http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050227_133948.html

2005-03-02T11:27:00.000Z

What slows Groove down most?

It is really frustrating to see people think and expect that Groove can do anything "just because it is easy". A space starts life and is empty, void. Then someone adds a file or two. Someone else adds three or four. It soon gets re-organised into folders.

And then the explosion happens. Suddenly it becomes a free for all and files are dropped in from everywhere. The result? Chaos.

As more files are added no-one thinks what the impact is. That is until a new member of the team joins the space. I have just joined a large space - 550 megs. It has taken my computer probably 5 hours of download on my broadband connection. (I made a mistake, I should have accepted the invite on my account PopG. We all make mistakes, don't we.)

These large spaces do no-one any good. Except from a feel-good factor, a buzz of "I've got a 550 megs space on my computer". It certainly is not productive! It is not productive use of Groove.

And sadly, I guess, it is what many, many Groovers are doing and suffering with day after day. Ah, I hear you say, "I have an 800meg space, and I'm not suffering." Just tell that to your next new space member.

Why is this bad, apart from performance? Just look at the content. Just look at the content. How many people use Groove for storing software downloads? How many people use Groove for sharing PDFs they have collected?

One of our users, Rick Lillie has this right. Using Groove to store large files is not good. Yes, it is right in some cases, but that is not the same as every file on your disk! Rick, of CalState, uses Groove primarily for thought sharing. He then tends to include external content (PDFs, Setup.Exe's) as hyperlinks.

Embedding a hyperlink into Groove costs nothing. It has no impact on performance or any resources whatsoever. It has a great positive impact on productivity.

That's is the beginning of an architecture that will scale, and scale and scale.

2005-02-28T10:55:00.000Z

Star Gazing to V4...

What would a next generation of Groove look like?

The starting point has to be a mind-map of spaces. Instead of this current linear listing & folders the whole concept has to become more intuitive. The mind does not work in a linear way, so why enforce that!

It then needs to break the "space" apart. It needs to move more towards a more flexible and granular container & object model within the space. This needs to be done both graphically and in its security model.

A rectangle on screen in which may be the results of a database query whose results are only editable or even vieweable depending on "object membership". And perhaps another rectangle dedicated to presence awareness. All organised according to the way the project requires it - not according to how some developer / designer wants it limited - a page-design layout.

The granularity of its security must drop down to the object as well. With the ability to add new objects in to that secure zone according to the project needs.

Making the security drop down to an object rather than the current rigid concept of a space will significantly reduce and optimize bandwidth. For example, will people no longer have to copy PDFs et al from one space to another, they will just embed that PDFs own secure zone in to another secure zone. This will imply no breach of security, it will allow greater and more flexible distribution of the object (eg PDF) into other relevant containers.

And talking of bandwidth, once the above improvement is in place then p2p bandwidth performance enhancers such as bit-torrent can be applied to dramatic effect since the pool of computers from which a given object can be obtained from grows exponentially. Whereas right now Groove can only fetch from a limited number of computers, perhaps only 2 or 3 in many cases.

This above change will extend the reach of space membership. Instead of being limited to some nominal number such as 50, 100 or perhaps 200, now a space may contain up to 1000 and beyond members with little effort.

And finally Groove needs to come out of the dark - it needs, optionally to be able to integrate with HTTP, FTP, SMTP and other protocols as a feature. Right now there are add-ons, for example there is Groove+Outlook integration, though in PopG today we favour AvantMail. RSS-feed integration is possible. One goal is to be able to look at all the pull and push points and ensure there is no wastage of development effort since many of these involve developer partners.

The extensible Forms tool needs continuing and substantial development to become the front-end for all data manipulation. If it is any good (and it is) then it needs to become a powerhorse of the GUI. That means it has to be able to deal with all the layout issues possible. And of course the developer community has to be "there" in understanding the next generation of the tool.

In truth the currrent architecture, which I believe is a phenomenal acheivement is also holding back the performance, extenstibility and usability - and that's what Groove 4's agenda should aim to deliver on.

2005-02-25T11:18:00.000Z

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.

2005-02-24T09:16:00.000Z

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.

2005-02-22T00:13:00.000Z

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...

2005-02-20T11:43:00.000Z

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.

2005-02-17T00:37:00.000Z

Do you want to meet Hapsgalarhd the Venerable?

He frequents the role-playing Groove space Keeping The Peace In Headington Quarry and is looking for others who thought they had left dungeons and dragons back in their cradle. People you will not meet are those with 20th/21st century names.

2005-02-11T16:07:00.000Z

Announcing PopG's Groove Stress Tests 2005

In Christmas 2002, or was it 2001, PopG ran a global test of Groove called How many users can Groove cope with. This test started to have problems at around 50 members, and keeled over before it reached 150 space members.Well PopG is heavily involved in supporting Tsunami and it is clear that Groove is MUCH improved. There are three main dimensions to stressing Groove- space membership- frequent delta traffic- large data volume trafficSo, how many people can Groove cope with now? We intend to initiate the above tests in a controlled fashion so that we can answer these questions. In this we need your help.To consider participatating you MUST - be running the latest build of Groove Virtual Office 3.0 - that is 3.0f, build 2283- have a relatively stable Groove environment (we do not want tests skewed becaue you have problems!)- follow the Stress Test guidelinesFull test details and instructions, including space invitation are publicly available from our Support Forums.(PS you do not need to be a PopG user to participate.)

2005-02-08T13:23:00.000Z

Congrats to Ellen MacArthur on sailing around the world pretty damned fast

As an owner of a little RIB myself I get fearful just going across a single bay around the coast of England and would not dream of exposing myself to the hazards of the open sea. But to do this for 71 days and break the world record - is a fantastic acheivement.

I have just been watching the news coverage as she arrived into Falmouth. And what amazed me was the obvious team "collaborative" effort required that Ellen to achieve this.

Well done.

2005-02-07T15:50:00.000Z

Is thin wrong?

At http://black.typepad.com/john_blacks_weblog/2005/01/still_the_dread.html John Black refers to the Groove experience on PopG as if it was some kind of very poor brother to "normal" Groove. Whilst I would not want to say that using a Mac is the same as using a PC, I would strongly argue that both can be used very effectively for word processing and spreadsheet work. Also I don't hear that many users of one complaining on a daily basis "oh I wish I had the other type of computer." You just get on with life.

I can see where John is coming from. Groove itself has had a real uphill challenge in getting credibility. He points to the easy ride that E-mail seems to have had, no matter how poor a medium it is. In fact perhaps the primary thing going for E-mail is its ubiquitousness: no small thing of course.

And PopG has had, over time, a similar perceptual challenge to normal Groove usage. Sometimes this is a matter of prejudice, sometimes it is lack of experience. Partly it is due to PopG not having the cash backing of $m investment.

But a PopG delivery of Groove can outstrip a "normal" groove in many areas. For instance, one area is in large datasets. Groove is percieved to bottlneck on performance when a space gets to a certain size. Received wisdom is at around 1-2 gigs. John refers to the Groove EDB product as a solution for this.

Let me say right now that if your Groove project requires spaces up to 1-2gigs.. No, let's go further, exceeding the 1-2 gig limit. Let's go to perhaps 50gigs, perhaps even terabytes. Yes, that's where PopG can deliver - all possibly in fully-functioning ultra-fast performing Groove Viritual Office workspace.

2005-02-02T17:30:00.000Z

Someone is listening...

One of my "complaints" aka suggestions, was that Instant Messages should be replicated when an account is turned into a Multiple Computer account. Well today I installed my account on a new computer - and lo and behold Groove is now busy updating all the Instant Messages. And who sasy Groove Networks don't listen!

2005-02-01T19:55:00.000Z

Announcing the PopG Support Forums

Well it has been a long time coming... But visit http://denver.popg.net/sf/ to visit our support forums. These will not only be a place to discuss PopG issues for users but also a place for possibly quasi-controversial posting on Groove and more...

2005-01-20T15:01:00.000Z

Why should I uninvite suspended people before re-inviting them?

Simply put, if you suspend and reinvite without putting an uninvite in the middle then there is a danger that Groove (not ot mention the participant!!!) gets confused and does not restore the participant's space back to good health.

The problem is that if someone receives a re-invite to a sapce that is "corrupted", they may only see a "Andy Swarbrick wants you to enter this space". Which is about as useful as a spoonful of coffee in a cup of tea! However issuing the uninvite first, ensures that their computer is in the correct state to receive the fresh invitation.

This tip and more unique Groove tips are available on the PopG website - see the Groove Tips link on our home page at www.popg.net.

2005-01-17T16:34:00.000Z

Are you a manager of a space - then watch for and issue suspensions when you are told to.

(I've been here before, and I'll be here again - with no apologies)

If you look in space manager or the list of space in your launchpad then sometimes you will ssee a subtle yellow triangle against a space. It is a matter of Groove best practice that you watch for and act on these, for the benefit of you and other Groove members of that space.

The yellow triangle indicates that some participant or guest is due for suspension. Not suspending them does them no favours. It does your other space solleagues no favours. If you do not suspend then you clog up the works on your computer, possibly relay servers and possibly other space memebrs computers as Groove attempts to keep track of updates.

Long and heartfelt experience has shown that the three week suspension timer is a very worthwhile timer and you do well to look for its trigger - the little yellow triangle.

When it appears open the space and suspend any members as indicated. Then when all suspensions have been issued re-invite the lot of them.

Doing this will help keep your Groove and the Groove of colleagues humming.

Over time you will find that some people either do not come on line or otherwise do not accept the re-invitation. So it is good to look at your suspension list. People who simply refuse to come back into space. Uninvite them. Don't waste your time and theirs - uninvite.

2005-01-13T02:10:00.000Z

PopG is holding off upgrading to 3.0f. We are hoping to skip it and go to 3.0g when it comes out. The reasons seem to be some performance issues for some users - including me!

2005-01-13T02:06:00.000Z

Over Christmas we upgraded our portal. This particular upgrade has been several months in the offing. Improvements include:
-better support for a wider range of browsers,
-better password management,
-support for RDP through the portal and
-a much improved interface all round.

The upgrade also means we can provide smart card, RSA securID and similar authentication technologies for the security concious.

2005-01-13T01:56:00.000Z

Happy New Year to one and all. Sorry I have not kept up my goal of 1-a-day. After Christmas we were privilidged to begin supporting the Tsunami relief effort in conjunction with info-share (http://info-share.org/doc_view.php?record_id=35) focusing on Sri Lanka.

One success for PopG here is the automatic availability of streamed files stored in Groove out via a browser. This is worth a highlight since Groove data is normally part of the "dark internet", that is it is not available via a search engine at best and perhaps not even available via a direct URL. We have changed that.

The feature is proving so useful we are rolling it out for other projects and organisations.

2004-12-06T18:41:00.000Z

Coverage of our Palm support announcement...

Robin Good got there before we did at http://www.kolabora.com/news/2004/12/06/groove_goes_mobile_popg_does.htm! And the Groove blog http://www.groove.net/blog/?month=12&year=2004#C0797867-EE15-4A9A-B330-A1DF5C2B2901 follows.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 12:41

2004-12-06T18:38:00.000Z

PopG supports Palm Pilot - at last!

For us this seems a dream come true. We have been able to support PDAs running WinCE with ease but now we have a solution, in conjunction with DDH software for the Palm platform.

This is great news for me personnally since I used to be a great fan of DDH's other main product - their handbase. It was a sad day whne I left Palm's behind and "converted" to the PDA platform where my other friend Excel held sway.

Read the full news at www.popg.net and click on the Palm handheld press release link.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 12:38

2004-11-19T14:58:00.000Z

The day has arrived

Today PopG is running Groove 3.0e build 2251. What a gorgeous release. This, guys is an absolute must. If there was ever a time to upgrade - this is it. if you are still running 2.5 - I am sorry for you. If you are still running 3.0d or earlier - I am sorry for you. This release performs like crazy. it is as if someone has taken the brakes off of Groove and put their foot the the floor.

With 3.0 much of design imrovements have made Groove a greta product. Now we have absolutely blinding performance.

Thanks development team et al..

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 6:58

2004-11-10T13:16:00.000Z

It's not everyday...

http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,118238,00.asp reviews Groove and points appropriately to PopG. Thanks to various people who pointed this out to me. 
Perhaps one day it will be!

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 5:15

2004-11-03T01:28:00.000Z

Groove blogometer

http://www.groove.net/blog/?month=10&year=2004#3D572C7E-2DB1-49AE-9465-D422D15F7BF6

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 19:28

2004-11-03T01:25:00.000Z

YAT 2023: Hidden under a bushel

I just cannot wait to share this one with you. A real cracker. Someone in Groove is listening... Seriously listening. What a great feature. Get it out, Swarbrick, get it out...

Well if you have your account running on multiple computers (Groove allows up to five - and one should be on PopG - ok!!!) a serious problem getting spaces replicated across all computers. It used to be the case that you would
go to each computer
and for each space
right-click
and say "get Workspace".
This gets boring after the first 100, believe me. When you have done the things I do with Groove this is a real yawn.

Well no more. Now you can go to workspace properties and check a box that says "automatically download to all my computers". There is a God, after all :-)

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 19:25

2004-10-19T09:50:00.000Z

Strong Angel II recognition

Eric Rasmussen has posted hist report on the outcomes of this event at http://www.strongangel.telascience.org with comments on PopG's contribution.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 4:50

2004-10-12T22:05:00.000Z

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

2004-10-12T13:12:00.000Z

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

2004-10-12T13:10:00.000Z

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

2004-10-12T08:23:00.000Z

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

2004-10-11T10:11:00.000Z

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

2004-10-10T16:52:00.000Z

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

2004-10-09T19:13:00.000Z

Yat: How to open a new window in Groove VO

in Groove 2.5 opening a space in a new window was a peice of cake. From the file menu was the open "New Window". For some reason this seems to have evaporated in 3.0. A neat trick however is to start editing an object say discussion thread entry. Groove is then forced to open an new window. Of course one day we will have a "Open in new Window" option whereever sensible, but right now you know what to do, ok.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 14:13

2004-10-09T15:38:00.000Z

'Tis Autumn time, a time for making...

Quince & Green Tomato Chutney. Take a head of garlic chopped, and sweated enough oil in a large enough pan on a low heat. Add and stir in heap of crushed dried red chillies, ginger, large heap of crushed green cardamons, cinnamon, lots of ground cumin seeds, similarly with smaller amounts of coriander and fenugreek, black pepper seeds, and finally some turmeric, Then chop in around 2lbs of green tomatoes and 2lb of quice, apples or whatever. Keep stirring as you go. Not too much oil, but if it looks dry add a touch more as you go. Add a 1/4 pint of vinegar. The pan should be bubbling. Add a range of dried fruit - sultanas, chopped dates, raisins. Add 2-3 oz sugar and a dollop of salt. Bubble slowly for around 1-2 hours. Seal into jam jars etc.

The actual recipe depends upon what you have in the cupboard and what you sharp fruit you can obtan cheaply. I think a recipe is something unique, something that should be created from one's environment. My tomatoes came from my loving parents and the fruit came from Cutteslowe Park (http://www.visitoxford.org/oxford/leisurelist.nsf/0/5209cb7db913c54280256a22003935ba?OpenDocument) next our flat, collected by my colleague Nick from windfalls etc.

Getting the recipe right is getting a balance between sharp and sweetness, between flavour and body. This means balancing cardamons, sugar and cinnamon with chillies, tart apples or quinces. Just check the taste as the pot bubbles and correct to your own taste - my taste always tends to the fiery side of life. Do remember that a chutney like this matures beatufully over months, and hopefully year - if you can make a big enough batch!

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 10:38

2004-10-09T09:09:00.000Z

Don't you just love wierd things?

Well not in this case. It almost seems like a virus tat has hit PopG. Sometimes when someone asks to create a workspace or add a file - something that references disk - then Groove coughs with an error. I forced an upgrade to 2.0d in case this fixed the prob. It did not. The problem first surfaced less than one month ago. The fix is simple and easy - click on PopG's Start menu and choose Groove->Exit, Clean Buffers & Restart.

So the question remains what is Groove's CleanBuffers function doing suhc that it clears this error. What caused the error? And is anyone on a "normal" computer experiencing anything like this!

Luv Andy.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 4:09

2004-10-07T14:52:00.000Z

A necessary evil?

Perhaps I am a purist, perhaps I am mad. But everytime Groove extends the boundaries of Groove outside the core product out to the "real world" something inside me says "hold up". I had this feeling when Groove's integration points with Microsoft Office were announced, And when that extended to Email with Outlook - again shivers went down my spine. This is not an anti-MS thing - it is purely about the purety of the product. It is a matter of people are so used to doing things in Word - they just do it, regardless of whether it is the right thing.

And so we come to GFS - Groove File (or is it Folder) Sharing. My beef about this starts with the question "is data inside Groove secure?". Groove's claim here is that Groove data is secure both "on disk" and "across the wire".

Clearly when using normal Groove Files tool both statements are true. However when using GFS only the latter is possible. Your files are just stored on disk in native format. So unless you take extra precautions outside Groove and encrypt your disk - then GFS files are wide open.

And bear in mind that Groove is a sharing tool. So it is not only important to understand your own attitude to security - it is also important to ensure that ANYONE you share GFS data with has to uphold your standards, at least. This means you have to be confident that others are encrypting their disks.

So currently GFS runs a whopping big coach and horses through Groove's security model and any novice using GFS might think, "hey, this is ok." And of course it isn't.

My second point is that there is a performance hit. This is because all GFS data to be shared must be both encrypted and decrypted on each transfer - that is at each endpoint. This must, by definition, be a very inefficient process - to encrypt at one end - and decrypt at the other. This process must happen for each and every file between each pair of endpoints. So if you share a GFS with 5 people and they are all dropping files in then the encrypt/decrypt process is happening 5 times on each computer.

Any file stored in the files tool encrypts when initially stored, and only decrypted when read, not when transferred.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 8:52

2004-09-26T23:24:00.000Z

PopG Service Availability Stats

People have been asking for service availability statistics for the PopG service. This is an important question since in the early days when our service was hosted at Warwick University we sufferred some tremendous outages that were beyond our control. Since we moved to our www.ViaWest.net hosting in Denver that changed fundamentally. They are a frist rate hosting company that are delivering great support.

And what is that all important number? Well, right now we are showing system available at 99.6242% of the time. In future we hope to provide this and other statistics on a regular basis and help you interpret them in a sense that is meaningful for your business. In the meantime I hope you agree that that is a great statistic to start with.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 17:24

2004-09-26T15:39:00.000Z

Klausi's Dilema

I was reminded of an interesting fundamental truth of website development. Two minimum components of building a website are the person who is going to build & develop the website - and the person who is paying the bill and will own the website, typically a business owner. In theory these make up a good team, the business owner knows the business and what they want - and the website developer knows the technology and how to deliver a website. Put the two together and you have a great website and a profitable business. At least that's the theory.

In practice creating a website requires that the developer knows the business. S/he knows what the business has been, what it is today and where it is going. This same person knows the customers who might visit the website and their expectations of the business. However that is only the start. The website developer has to get inside the business owners head. They have to have plentiful access to a variety of bumf and other documentation and also the people in charge of various aspects of the business that are selected for exposure as a website.

The developer then has to be able to go away and interpret such information and put it all together as a "cost-effective" project that delivers on all the technology points, including browser compatability, search engine friendliness, innovative & unique design elements, consistent navigation methodology, etc etc, But for now I want to ignore all the geeky parts - and concentrate on the human element.

Going back to the beginning you have to ask can the web designer ever know their customer's business? Obviously that is a challenge. In fact it is a huge challenge fraught with several pitfalls. The biggest of which is extracting the core message of the website out of the business owner.

You see most often the business owner doesn't know what they actually want. often they do not know how the web works. They often may be unable to enunciate key elements that are important to the web designer. And often reliance on documentation leaves huge gaping holes. It would be nice to think that the faults in communication can be laid at the door of lack of time. While the business owner and key executives may be under extraordinary time pressures that is not the real bottleneck.

The real bottleneck in a business owner being able to commission an effective (in the business owner's terms) website is the problem of being on a completely different planet to the web designer. They are often chalk and cheese. And no matter what the web designer comes up with the web site will be wrong. The colour will be wrong, the buttons too large, stub pages with text "waiting to be filled"... The list is endless.

To help emphasise the monunental challenge a website is a personal thing. Nothing works worse than an impersonal website that takes traditional advertising bumf and replays it in web format. Corporate bumf must always be impersonal, a website never. This is because corporate bumf can never be targetted at anything better than a type of customer, whereas the website must always have an individual real person in focus. The challenge for a website designer is to get inside that difference and bring something out that satisfies the business owner.

And that is Klausi's dilema. The web designer's nightmare is to sit in front of their favourite webdesign tool and "create" a personal statement from the business owner in graphical and textual format. Sure they can create, but will the creation be relevant? How long will the web designer have to wait for the business owner deliver of text for key pages? Will they have to spend extra hours manipulating images and making them suitable for web visitor consumption. Will it satisfy? Will it come within budget to keep the business owner happy - and the website developer a profit.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 9:39

2004-09-25T06:27:00.000Z

YAT fever strikes again: Don't delete your old contacts, hide them!

Someone in Groove has made me a very happy person. I was very troubled about old accounts - to which pool I have contributed more than my fair share!

When an account becomes becomes redundant then what is the impact of deleting it? It is not only to remove it from your annoyances list, but it is also to remove the memory within Groove of who created what in your instant messages and all spaces. You will just be left with "unknown account" entries, or the like. Adding dead accounts to your hidden list on the other hand keeps the digital signature intact and yet removes the annoyance of being reminded that that account exists.

The way to manage your hidden list is not obvious. Right now you go to Options->Contact manager and then you can "move" accounts onto the hidden list. Hopefully at some stage "Hide me" will be an option form the context sensitive menu for any contact name.

But for now it works, so enjoy - and whatever you do don't delete me :-)

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 0:27

2004-09-23T10:32:00.000Z

YAT (Yet another tip): A comprehensive guide to solving space sync problems

Mostly you may SUSPECT that one of your spaces is not syncing, but often it is dificult to prove. And even if you can prove it then it is even more disconcerting to resolve. Well here you go with my take on space sync resolution techniques.

Firstly how do you prove there are sync problems? Obviously the starting point is to do an explicit posting and ask others to confirm its existence, and vice-versa. If this does not work then you may have operating system, hardware, firewall or Internet issues. And it may be necessary or worthwhile reinstalling Groove VO. But first do the same test with other people and find out if it is your problem or your colleagues! (Note with this kind of problem it really helps to have three computers so you can decide which is the exception...)

But before you do any of the above dramatic steps the standard starting point is to shut Groove down and run CleanBuffers. I also like to restart Groove with the TrayOnly option. Then rerun your tests.

If you are still not syncing - then review your OS (eg WInXP SP2), Norton Security, ADSL configuration etc etc etc. In this note I do not want to spend time on thee subjects. I want to keep the focus in GVO. And anyway typically if Groove has been working these external influenses should not be where the problem lies.

Now double check your data: space sync problem could occur for a specific period of time. Look for missing data. This is a very difficult thing to check out - since you need to see both computers at the same time (let me kow how it goes!) Anyway the effect you are looking for may be missing entries for a certain time, say a day's worth. Believe me this is possible, I saw a classic instance first hand yesterday. And without taking further steps the situation will never resolve itself. What you are asking yourself here is WAS or IS there a problem, though actually WAS implies IS.

And you can imagine that probably most people (including Groove staff) are in denial that this could be an issue. But it is possible.

And now we are coming to the next steps. And lets take the most important tool - Discussion. Export to XML add a new Discussion tool and Import back from XML Does this work? Does the tool get added properly? Does the import get replicated.

My guess is that if you have continuing space sync probs then neither will happen. And so we come to what may be the turning point. Delete space from this (offending) computer. Then Get Workspace from the "nearest" other good computer. Exit Groove and restart. Groove will tell you about this last step.

My guess is that everything will be fine from this moment onwards & should solve around 99% of space sync problems.

For any remaining issues I recommend creating a new & temporary preview Groove account on the same computer. (Don't delete your existing one - at least not yet). In the new account see if that can replicate properly. If it does then it implies that your computer, operating system and internet connectivity are working. Can the two local accounts talk to each other properly?

If your old account refuses to budge then you need to retire it. If you have any spaces that ONLY exist on that account or you are concerned about some specific spaces then click File, Save Workspace As Archive. Once you have all your data archived go to options->preferences and the account tab. Delete account (from this computer).

Shut Groove down and restart. Note that account deletion ONLY occurs on startup. I know it is wierd, but that's how it goes.

The only final rider is that if you have the same account on multiple computers - and one of the others is working, then upload that to Groove.net and download into this computer and start again.

And that my friends, is everything you need to know.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 4:31

2004-09-22T08:31:00.000Z

Tip: An easy way to invite loads-a-contacts to a space

Open a space and show the members panel. Then in launchbar open up your list of contacts. Select a few, Now drag them over to that members panel. That's easy, isn't it.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 2:31

2004-09-21T18:46:00.000Z

When is someone in space, yet not in space?

Have you ever had a space installation fail? I reckon I have been party to around 10 in my Groove career. until today I did not think them a problem: today I changed my mind.

Today I witnessed first hand being in a space and yet not being in a space. This started because I sent an invitation to my colleague Steve. He complained about an error "cannot install space" or something. What is wierd is that on my computer he showed as in-space - and I received no error apart from Steve's verbal rendition.

This is bad. It implies that I think he is able to read content in a space that I think is important to him - but as far as he knows the space does not exist! This is a bug.

You might ask how could this occur. let's look at the process. Firstly when someone joins a space Groove re-issues all the security signatures. Not a problem there. But at what actual moment is the signature suite updated? The answer is when the invitation is finally accepted (by both parties). From that moment on the target user is officially a space member.

According to you they are a space member before they have the space. According to them, they are not a member until the space is installed.

After that moment a copy of the space is prepared for shipping as "deltas", These are sent over and assembled. And finally installed. Or not. Currently there is no positive affirmation that space installation succeeded to the sender. To the recipient all they get is a temporary notification. No permenant reminder is left in Message History. Once the temporary notification is gone, that's it.

Both parties are in total ignorance of the other's status. The sender thinks everything is rosy, and the recipient forgets space invite as not a problem "I will get so-and-so to send it another day and get another invite", s/he thinks.

But of course the sender NEVER ever realises the problem exists. So they never resend.

Even worse than that they continue to think the recipient is probably ignoring content or not wishing to contribute.

When and how does the sender or recipeint ever correct the situation? The answer is probably never and if they try then probably with great difficulty.

Dear reader. As a challenge may I ask you how YOU can confirm that anyone showing according to your members list actually is in space - assuming they never post. Assume the recipient is on the other side of the globe so you cannot see their computer. I think the only way is to post something and ask them verbally for confirmation. But remember they may think you are stupid. They are saying "What space? What is s/he ranting about!"

You might ask, "Andy, why don't you submit this as a bug." Well, dear reader, you and I need to know how widespread this problem is. The reason for this is that we are part of a community. If the community is dysfunctional we need to know. So please can you IM me if you think you have suffered and let us gather information - and solutions.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 12:46

2004-09-07T10:50:00.000Z

Nonce-sense

At http://www.teaminfocenter.com/ProgrammingNotes2/HowToExample/groovenonce.htm, John Giudice introduces what I interpret as the kernal of Groove replication thinking - the nonce. As far as I understand it, all events are relative to that value, which is written uniquely when a Groove client first starts. The matter comes to mind partly because somehow even from the early days Groove has had a history of replication issues. Granted that 99.999% of Groove replication is by and large a wonderful thing, it has to be asked under what circumstances could it fail steadily over such a long period? Also granted that the main task of Groove is replication, so if it is going to "fail", then that's the area of focus.

As I look at my Groove inbox I see one message from someone with a datestamp ahead of others. New IMs are coming in and being religated, according to datestamp as earlier that this message that actually came in some hours ago. I am not saying that Groove is wrong in the way it presents this wierd event. I have taken part in live Groove Chat sessions where peoples responses are inserted above the latest posts. But is it right?

Everything is displayed in date order. But date order is not the order in which events happen. Of course why nonce's exist is to avoid the human interpretation. but at some point Groove must create an interface between the nonce and human dates. As far as I understand it the nonce is trying to be an independent way of replacing time-stamp thinking. Given the fickleness of human time-stamps including incorrect clocks, time-zones etc you can see the logic.

The result however is to put the nonce on a pedastel. The fact is that in some parts of Groove coding, at some level things are not perfect. Let me not paint a picture of Groove is unreliable, when the opposite is true. But my guess is there are nonce-related gremlins in there. My guess is that Groove's engineers have found many of them over the products life-span. However my guess also is that there are still a few left.

And where do these gremlins occur? Trying to imagine where the lack of nonce-sense lies I would guess it is in assuming information about the remote computer. Visibly errors typically do not in core data replication - not that that such a thing for a normal user to confirm! With Groove you see data arrive, you do not know what does not arrive! Issues that are obvious tend to occur in the messaging around that replication, invitations, IMs, notifications. These are the obvious manifestation of Groove's transport.

An important note is that a challenge for Groove is performance. And does it perform. Groove can replicate very effectively. But at what cost? Are there assumptions in that replication made to boost performance that are not being trapped, or the cost of trapping is too much to consider?

Am I talking nonsense? Probably, but my gut feeling is that solving this kind of puzzle is a lateral thinker's dream challenge. Oh, and by the way, in case anyone is unclear - the above is my supposition based on experience. I have no access to Groove internals. And in some (non-)senses perhaps that is a strength :-)

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 4:49

(Update. Looks like I may be way off beam on the above. Hugh Pyle (and he should know) pointed out that the nonce is a security measure for GWS, and that's all it is. It is nothing to do with dynamcs. Oh, well, it sounded good to me. - thanks Hugh.)

2004-09-07T09:08:00.000Z

BT gets into VoIP (sic!)

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6158117&section=news

Supposedly BT are getting into competition with Skype. What a j.o.k.e. A company that only knows how to employ people with skills to defend its monoplistic markets is going to take on one of the brightest projects on the Internet. Chalk & Cheese.

The fact is that the kind of market that Skype is in is one of the Internet's success stories. Skype thrives by driving customer costs down to approximately zero and then building up. Users of Skype recognize that logic and hunt it down in similar projects such as Linux, and the vast array of very high-quality freeware.

The fact is that traditional companies cannot begin to deal with these upstarts. Skype and its ilk come from nowhere. Companies like Skype have the ability to adapt to their own growing marketplace, turning their business plan upside down every week if necessary. The momontum inside BT only permit it to lumber on. Skype et al can gain incredible market share in new markets, and the only option for a company like BT is to attempt to buy them for astonishing amounts

The idea of BT gaining some foothold in Skype's marketshare? Thanks for the laugh. Now, if you want a company that could take on Skype - that would be Apple. Apple is riding a wave right now with its phonomenally successful iPod and iTunes. If it moved on VoIP (which is possibly is, but my ignorance keeps me in the dark right now) and integrated into the iPod concept it could create an equivalent of BT's domininance of the last mile and own the connectivity of VoIP devices in the home & office to VoIP services such as Skype.

The other critical advantage of Apple is its global focus. BT's UK/EU focus hampers it beyond belief. It means it will only be taken seriously by its exsiting and diminishing customer base, who will all contunue to pay through the nose for second rate services.

Yours, a BT customer ;-(

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 3:07

2004-09-05T22:39:00.000Z

"By the way great system"

This is just one of a range of quotes coming at us from our Creighton university students.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 16:38

2004-09-03T22:54:00.000Z

Where did I go to?

Some of you may have wondered where I have been for the last few days. Emergency rations. I have had a major minor catstrophe of losing myself. I should really lock up my ego and keep ity safe! Anyway I have had to concentrate over the last few days on critical matters and part of that is rebuilding myself. Fortunately, as per my last posting, a recovery plan was in sight. Now largely that recovery is complete. To those of you who I have ignored - my apologies.

Normal service will now resume.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 16:53

2004-09-01T15:48:00.000Z

Finger trouble...

So there I was creating 30 new Groove users on our server & ran into problems on one user. Getting into a bit of a steam about it I clicked delete on some files. Bad move. Very bad move. The files I was incorrectly deleted were my own Groove account files. Oh, woe, thrice woe. And bear in mind that I do not believe in recycle bin.

An emergency email to support@groove.net got me back on track. Because my Groove account is "managed" It was able to download a copy of my account from the Groove management server. I had high-hopes for this. But what it did was surprising. It behaved correctly - but surprisingly and yikes, nevertheless.

Ok so I downloaded my "account". I already had my spaces (system\permanent) safe. So I hoped the two together would combine nicely. Wrong. All the space information was totally dead. Lost account=lost spaces, permanently.

However Groove behaved correctly, really. It re-created the account. I logged on and ended up with a list of spaces "not on this computer". Lots of right-clicks later with "fetch this space" from whoever - and most of my system is up and running. I am impressed.

A couple of wierdos remain. Some spaces will not fetch even though I know the other party is on-line and has the space. Also for some spaces all I get is "get workspace" with no list of users. Why this happens seems random to me. What it implies is not clear. The after effect of this is not obvious - in theory perhaps, in practice definitely not.

And of course all my messages are gone. Oh for a message archive tool.

2004-08-29T09:02:00.000Z

Spaces of note: "Software that I just can't live without..."

I have to say that "Software that I just can't live without..." is fabulous. Initiated by James Roe-Smith when I joined the space started I wondered "what". What, after all the mega-successful websites that list utility after utility, what could a space like this have to offer.

Well I guess the notions that seem to make this space an increasing success include control, currency and focus. All the information is absolutely focused on the community it serves, all its information includes news breaking uitilties, and right now the focus is being held to its core ideals. What more can one ask of a successful space.

Intrinsic in creating a successful space is naming of the space. If you can create a space with a name that resonates in the community it serves then your are off to a great start. And this space has it. It does not stop contributions from members pushing the boundaries of the spaces intended goals, for example I contributed a thread on domain name management. But it gives a clear focus to return to.

To give you an idea of what is in there I am just about to post an absolutely amazing remote control utiility that I have just come across that simply knocks the spots of anything I have ever come across before - and its totally free under the GNU license.

Contact James for more info...

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 3:01

2004-08-28T23:37:00.000Z

There once was a man named Fred...

Who decided to go to bed.
Then late at night
he woke up with a fright
and in the morning he was dead.

What's wrong? Answers by IM to Andy Swarbrick (d) /PopG
(ps: nothing to do with Groove, just the result of wine, curry & friends)

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 17:36

2004-08-27T11:54:00.000Z

Definitely not for the fainthearted Groove game no 4 & 4a

Shutdown Groove. Physically copy all your groove directories: data, system, accounts - wherever they exist. Now start Groove. Ok so you have a backup & groove is operating normally. Fine.

Now comes the fun bit. Work for a few hours, days, or weeks. And then replace your Groove with the backup from olden times. What's the result?

Of course there is an addendum to this. Take the backup and install it on another computer. Load up Groove running with this data. What's the result? Especially what is the result if the two computers are running at the same time.

No-one has yet comment on the results of my previous quizzes. Next week I hope start to posting results. And all I can say right now - is take a deep breath.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 5:52

2004-08-26T23:45:00.000Z

Thanks.

That's it. I just want to say that to all you Groovers out there. You know who you are. Thanks for being part of the new global & local, sharing & caring, focused & pertinent, active & reactive, attentive & "there" business paradigm.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 17:41

2004-08-25T23:07:00.000Z

A great moment indeed...

Back in early 2003, Groove indicated that it was creating a price differential for purchasing Groove within the USA/Canada versus Internationally. The major reason cited as justification was that this was in-line with sales policy for other "similar" companies. And it is indeed true that almost any US company hikes its prices when trying to sell abroad. So you can see that this ideology would gain some serious credence: and credence led to fact.

As a driver of Groove business I registered my opinion that this was not good for Groove. There were several reasons for this, the most important one being that Groove sales would increase more dramatically with uniform pricing. Having registered my opinion over a period, myself and others let the subject lie, and hoping that eventually sense and realism would somehow prevail.

Right now sense is prevailing. Great news for Groove, its partners and customers. As of first of September uniform pricing is back. This is a great moment in several ways and I think it is worth reflecting on this. Actually great does not do justiice to the moment. And it is nothing to do with any form of self-congratulation such as "we were right, they were wrong".

What it is about is in several levels. Groove is not like Excel, Windows, Mac-OSX, Quark, Acrobat, GoToMyPC. It is a distributed network app that does not understand National boundaries (export license apart). A wonderful aspect of Groove life is communicating intelligently without borders. So if one colleague is penalised for being in a different zone then this stark reality hits the motivation of the entire team. As of the 1st Sept, that problem is no more.

At a business level Groove as a company has grown in stature. It has had its critics but it has addressed those criticisms internally and worked through them - perhaps subconsiously. Such changes in culture do not happen overnight. It takes time for Groove the product to weave its magic on people whether they are insde or outside the company. It takes time and persistence for Groove's partner and customer eco-system to operate as a feedback loop should and give the company the confidence to take this brave decision.

It is worth pressing on this subject a little more. Ray and his friends created something called Groove. And so initially they owned the idea. And ok they still largely own the direction. But there is a force growing here, an inimmitable force, that of the Groove community. A truism of computing is that when a software product goes to market many users use the product in totally different ways to those imaginged by the creators. What is happening in the Groove idiom is more than that.

In Bear & Sterns report on Internet 3.0 back when Groove was 1, they suggested that growth of Groove sales would initially be slow but solid. That prediction was easy to understand and accept by advocates such as myself. That prediction has been perfect to date.

But now the climate is changing. Now the community has confidence. Together we have achieved some extraordinary, world-first, unique projects. Not least of which is staying the journey. And I will give you just one personal example that gives me great satisfaction.

An early advocate of PopG is one Rick Lillie of CalState University. Rick has been in there from year dot. He, like us all has his own way of approaching Groove. His tenacity to his approach is enormous. And right now we are on the cusp or realising common dreams - that of enabling his students to have a world-beating learning experience using Groove on PopG. This project has been three years in the making. And Rick has done it.

And that is the final reason. Groove is now gaining confidence in its market, and vice-versa. Enjoy the new pricing.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 17:05

2004-08-25T14:44:00.000Z

It never rains, but...

And so I was feeling happy and complacent about Windows XP SP2 issues, "not my problem". And then what happens but I take a support call and find that a) the general internet performance issues were hampering someone even connecting to PopG's public service and b) I then find out that good ol' Citrix has been affected as well as any other app. Andy so if you yourself, or you hear of anyone having probs accessing or using PopG then ask them "are they using Windows XP" and/or ask them to speak to us asap.

We will be posting updates here as soon as we have more concrete info. Right now it seems that people coming in via Java will not be affected and so our hope is that should be most of our users.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 8:42

2004-08-25T09:46:00.000Z

Lest anyone think I am prejudiced against SP2...

I reckon they should read http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/xp-sp2.html very closely and understand the tremedous potential benefits of what MS is trying to achieve. SP2 is an impressive package: my argument is soley against the way it is rolled out.

According to the official bad apps knowledge base article 200 proper apps are on the list. That is 200 apps that MS thought would be at risk. My guess is by the time SP2 is history that number could rise to 2000. Some will be small and trvial, but my guess also is that almost every Windows developer will need to take account of Sp2 - just to stand still.

2004-08-25T09:13:00.000Z

But hey, something needed to be done to stem all those worms and virus problems out there right?

Of course something had to be done. And of course, until now Microrsoft were there own worst enemy. Their operating system was wide open by default, unless you knew how to lock it dowm. So of course suppliers good (eg Groove?) and bad (eg virus writers) exploited every loophole.
But MS has a real political problem upgrading Operating Systems. The momentum in previous release means that up and coming OS releases (and SP2 should have been a new OS, imo) are rejected by the community rather than welcomed. But rejection comes from more than just momentum. It comes from distrust.

Increasingly MS is pushing the boundaries of distrust. Whether it be the merits of MS-Passport, "trustworthy computing" or this latest "security" initiative. Whatever MS does it seems to be able to fall well short in managing customer relations. It continues to treat general users as something close to being untrustworthy.

With SP2 they decided they could not trust users to install SP2 and so took the unilateral decision that if they did not force it down people's throats then it would not be adopted. Mr Gates also put direct pressure on the release method by indicating that MS would fundamentally deal with virus & spam in a short time frame.

The upshot of this is that suppliers are quaking in their feet over this particular downgrade. I use that last word advisedly: SP2 is not an expansion of functionality - it is a contraction of any networking app.

Suffer colleagues, suffer.

2004-08-24T16:06:00.000Z

Arrogance it seems is not in Microsoft's spell checker

And so Microsoft seem, in my opinion, to overstretch the mark yet again. How do they do it? Now not only is this Windows XP SP2 service pack breaking apps apart left right and centre, but Microsoft are forcing its deployment down people's throats. A blocking tool is available - but it has a timeout. Thereafter SP2 WILL install itself and there is nothing you nor I can do about it.

posted by Andy Swarbrick (d)/PopG at 10:04

2004-08-20T14:09:00.000Z

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

2004-08-20T00:48:00.000Z

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

2004-08-19T17:04:00.000Z

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

2004-08-19T13:40:00.000Z

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

2004-08-18T19:29:00.000Z

Talking of suspensions - who is "null"?

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 13:27

2004-08-18T19:22:00.000Z

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

2004-08-18T13:29:00.000Z

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

2004-08-17T22:53:00.000Z

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

2004-08-17T17:45:00.000Z

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

2004-08-17T17:31:00.000Z

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