New Groove Tool...A Glimpse of What's to Come
I have been playing with Parallelspace's new (new to me at least) Dashboard tool. Its an aggregator of several tools into a single view within a space but is much more. Aggregates messages and data from calendar entries into one view pane. You can search all of your Groove spaces (yep, its finally arriving) and, gasp, PRINT the findings. Messages, Calendar entries, Discussion entries can all be searched. There's a web browser mini-window that will do streaming stock quotes, and a neat world time window. I believe it does all this using the .NET architecture, with Groovelets at the core. Since 90% of my Groove use is 'self collaboration' I can't assess the full ramifications of this tool...but I can see how it portends great new things for Groove.
My favorite Groove Tools and Why (not in a specific order):
Mindjet's MindManager mindmapping tool: Tailor made for collaboration. Remarkable ability to print natively and do that very well, export as a web page, and compatible with Mindjet's desktop suite of mindmapping tools. The second most "wow!" factor tool. Main block to Groove tool nirvana: bogs down when mutliple space members are using it simultaneously.
Mysterian's Radiology Manager tool: Perhaps the most useable tool out of the box that even non-Groove users can see the potential for. This tool is still in its formative stages but one thing is certain: you will get folk's attention in demo-ing Groove (regardless of for healthcare or not) if RadMan is a part of it. Main block to Groove tool nirvana: its a niche product for teleradiology.
PinBoard: Simple and elegant but quite powerful and flexible. Better than the Welcome tool as the entry tool in a space because of its flexibility. A visually appealing tool, beat out of the top spot only by MindManager. Block to nirvana: print, not a part of Groove Networks' standard tools in Workspace so it requires injection at a later point.
Forms Tool: The dark horse tool to reign supreme. Flexible to specific uses and seemingly limited by your imagination. Block to nirvana: sort of data and formatting of views/input pages has little options unless you do web design.
GToolbox's GXL: The ONLY way to collaboratively use Excel within Groove. Block to nirvana: tool is still being tweaked for master functionality. Needs Fx Wizard ability to be embraced by power users of Excel.
P4CRM: I have always found this tool a gem, but can't afford the ~$250 license fee just to play with it by myself. Imports messages, masters campaigns of CRM, a better contact manager than GN's own offering. Block to nirvana: I have not used this with others so I can't truly assess the limits.
Discussion Tool: The "Mother of All Tools" (MOAT??). Consistently the first tool put into new spaces. If you don't put it there, I guarantee you will eventually see the need for it. Flexible, now lets printing occur. This tool is the hub of activity in most spaces, even more so than chat (arrgghhh...still no audio/visual notifications of changes to chat!). Blocks to nirvana: print limited to one topic at a time, exporting of specific threads missing.
Files: A must have because people are going to share files eventually in collaborative settings. Better since 2.5, gets better each release of Groove. Wonderful (but untapped it seems) ability to jointly give PowerPoint presentations. Blocks to nirvana: if you have dialup, you are sure to get burned by a large file being dumped in here by a guy like me (heheh)
Tools that Least Help Me:
Contacts tool: Too "one trick pony" for me.
Voice Chat: Doesn't work for everybody every time. When it does, it is quite amazing and worth the hassle. SB can hear me, but I can't hear him on my home computer. On my laptop, I can hear him but he can't hear me. Rick Lillie and I have a similar experience. Sheesh...we will all take this tool seriously when Groove Networks does and digs out why this happens.
Calendar: Getting better, but until I can print a month at a time, day at a time, or anything else than 1 entry at a time I can't leverage it properly. Works best to keep OTHERS informed of my schedule, but not myself.
12:32:01 AM 
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