I’ve been looking around at collaboration tools for small and medium-sized companies recently.
Product-wise, Microsoft Groove is a real-time, integrated, encrypted, peer-to-peer, online/offline collaboration environment now built into Office 12. Technology-wise, you could argue that Groove is a network OS.
Overall, I’d say Groove is an easy-to-install clone of Andrews File System (AFS) (distributed storage with fine-grained permissions) with a graphical UI that’s oriented to communications rather than just file sharing.
From what I’ve read online, here is a brief comparison of the Internet and Groove:
| Existing Internet Applications | Groove Network Applications |
|---|---|
| email and Groove messages | |
| chat and presence detection | Groove chat and presence detection |
| ftp, rsync, webdav, subversion, wikis, NFS, samba, Andrews File System (AFS) | Groove shared file workspaces |
| HTML, etc. | create forms with Groove (similar to Notes), Microsoft Infopath |
| VoIP, Skype, YM Voice | original Microsoft NetMeeting for now |
| LDAP, Kerberos, NIS | Groove User Mgmt, PKI |
| standards-based | proprietary, Windows-only for now, likely Mac OS X later |
| not integrated | integrated |
| search with Lucene, etc. | Sharepoint search |
| not easy to install and manage | idiot-proof – no servers needed for personal use, Groove server needed for corporate use |
I can see why Microsoft bought Groove Networks and Ray Ozzie is now CTO there: to continue making life easier for users and Microsoft’s policy of “embrace, extend and extinguish.”
Windows gains some features that are not easy-to-configure on Unix, and lock-in is promoted in the enterprise similar to the central, exclusive role that Active Directory plays in the network. The lock-in is even worse if companies allow creation of external partner Groove workspaces.
I don’t really see using Microsoft Groove or Sharepoint because they force Windows lock-in on the corporate network. For now, MediaWiki or Twiki (free) over OpenSSL or OpenVPN (free) will have to do in the various heterogeneous environments (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, cell phones.)
wikipedia: Microsoft Office Groove
Marc Olson’s Groove 2007 Blog
Review Groove v.3 Beta – Very Promising New Features, Slick UI And Great Performance
JoS: SharePoint vs Wiki for developers
JoS: What is Sharepoint?
Alfresco Enterprise Content Management System
OpenAFS
Why Is the Internet So Unfriendly To Those Who Work in Teams?
jwz: Groupware Bad
