Friday, August 09, 2002

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John Burkhardt responds to Sam's observations: Tools like Groove and Radio represent a paradigm shift.  They create interpersonal connections and share information in rich and meaningful ways.  After my first few weeks at Groove I was convinced that it would be all that people would do with their computer.  Many users now say that Groove is always running.. it's becoming part of their primary use of their PC.  But it will take a long time for the masses to discover, because its not enough to just get the software and look at the screen shots.  You have to start experiencing it with other people in a meaningful context and making those connections before you start having those "Bing!" moments go off in your own head.

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Sam Gentile describes a scene that sounds very familiar to me.   I had Groove running on my notebook and I brought it up a few times to do things. I collaborate with some clients and people with Groove, keeping documents and discussions in sync. I also use it as a better Briefcase. And invariably, the comments were like "Wow, that's cool! I could manage my distributed project that way. I could keep track of bugs across a geographically disperse team that way. And man, you're disconnected and can sync later?" Then all of them would say "Who's Groove?" Its interesting to note that people need this kind of stuff and they have no idea its even out there or who Groove is (none of the developers in the room had ever heard of them).

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A Groove performance tip from Ray.