Monday, September 02, 2002

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Network World Fusion : Beating the drum The Telework Consortium plans to open its Telework Laboratory in Herndon, Va., this September.  The group believes that ultimately, full-motion video powered by ultra broadband connections is the future of telework. Plenty of people with deep pockets buy into the group's vision. The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Small Business Administration each awarded the Consortium $2.4 million and $1 million respectively. It's also signed on seven big name "technology partners": Nortel, AgilQuest, Microsoft, 3M, Groove Networks, Alloptic and Optical Solutions.

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Ashok links to the index of the upcoming eBook : Enterprise Groove, A roadmap to succsesful use

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Joel Spolsky's worthreading essay on platforms generated a lot of discussion during the weekend. I'm still reading and digesting all of it. Some interesting threads on Joel's forum discussing the essay. On their weblogs Brian Jepson, Justin Rudd and Krzysztof Kowalczyk agree with Joel and are expressing strong doubts regarding Groove's strategy. Dave Winer points to an essay from 1996 explaining why Groove can't bet exclusively on being a platform and Alexis Smirnov writes : So do I think Joel's article is wrong? No, it simply fails to capture the real issue with Groove - there are two different views of "Groove Platform". One is being offered by Groove Inc. and another is wanted by ISVs. Groove Inc. defines the platform as Runtime plus Transceiver. Want to build on the Groove Platform - write a Groove Tool. Most ISVs define the platform as Runtime. Period. Most of the people thinking of integrating Groove's collaboration capabilities only want the Runtime. This is why Joel's analysis of cost/benefit of integrating Groove with CityDesk is right on the money - it illustrates the Groove/ISV gap.