Shared Spaces ... the Collaboration Advisor

News for Today, Dec 17

News for today:

• InfoWorld says that WiredRed shipped e/pop Web Conferencing Server, a combined multi-point audio and video conferencing server that also includes desktop and application sharing. The hope is that companies will deploy on-network conferencing products, thus eliminating the per minute charges of conferencing service providers, such as PlaceWare and WebEx. The server will be integrated with WiredRed's IM and presence software in 1Q2004. InfoWorld. WiredRed announced the server on October 15. WiredRed
• Chad Dickerson, CTO at InfoWorld, wants the team at Groove Networks to deliver a Mac OS X port. InfoWorld. Neat idea, BUT unless corporate buyers turn out enmass for the next version of Groove, it's doubtful Groove Networks will even be around, let alone able to develop a Mac OS X port.

News for Today, Dec 16

A couple of news items for today:

• InfoWorld review of the future of enterprise collaboration technology, with three key items: (a) a message store based on a relational database, (b) simpler messaging systems for deskless workers, and (c) the integration of presence. The article lacks a discussion of the importance of shared workspaces (eg, Kubi, Windows SharePoint Services, QuickPlace, etc) as a key element of enterprise collaboration, and also how RSS could impact enterprise collaboration. InfoWorld
• Nice review by Brighthand of the HP iPAQ 4355, the one with the integrated keyboard. I'm surprised HP has taken so long to get such a device to market, especially given the long running success of the RIM BlackBerry with an integrated keyboard. Regardless of how nice the device is, I still strongly believe that Windows does not transfer well to a handheld device, and my own comparison of Pocket PC vs. Palm OS gives Palm OS much higher marks for usability. Brighthand

News for Today, Dec 12

After a quiet day yesterday, here's what's up:

• Vignette's acquisition of collaboration pure-play Intraspect Software was finalized and completed. Vignette took the opportunity to release three new solutions based on Intraspect's technology: Vignette Business Workspaces, Vignette Strategic Account Management, and Vignette Project Delivery. Vignette. Intraspect's home page displays a Vignette branded site.

• Indigo Software released InstantConferencing Server, a behind-the-firewall voice conferencing solution for enterprise customers that is presence enabled. Specifically, users of the MSN Messenger client can check the availability of contacts and co-workers, and invite them to a voice conference. Indigo Software
• The SIP Forum announced that its recent SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) interop event went well, with interop demonstrated between 13 different presence and availability implementation from nine companies. Attendee names were not disclosed, and the successful interop products and services were not either. TMCnet
• Pitney Bowes in Canada replaced its one-way text paging system with a two-way SMS-based system provided by a new wireless entrant, ZIM Technologies. Capabilities include trouble ticket delivery to mobile technicians. ZIM Overview of ZIM: Canada National Post
• Nice review of Kubi Client at IT-Director.com, albeit somewhat late to publish. Kubi's was announced back in February 2003. Also, the author says the Kubi Client works "peer-to-peer similar to Groove", but that is only true with relation to the original offering of Kubi Client without the Kubi Server. IT-Director.com
• Cisco Systems is planning to release IP desktop videoconferencing gear next year, including a USB-based desktop camera and software, at about $200 per seat. The aim is to give users equipment they can use where they work, instead of having to roll awkward room-based systems around. ComputerWorld
• Interview with Ambuj Goyal, GM of Lotus Software. Topics: the business value of collaboration technology, rationale for modularization, the threat of Microsoft and best-of-breed vendors, and service strategy for SMB customers. vnunet
• A joint TANDBERG and RoperASW research survey found that business professionals prefer face-to-face interactions for meeting with people for most business objectives. One reason is that a face-to-face meeting demands full attention from all involved, whereas people try to multi-task during audio conferences and e-meetings. Respondents were also asked whether they "strongly believe video communication can offer many of the same benefits as in-person communication". Can you guess the answer, given that the report is (a) now published, and (b) sponsored by a video conferencing company? IVCi (PDF, 123KB)

Enlista Classic

I downloaded and installed Enlista Classic on two of my machines: an iMac running Mac OS 10.3 (with 768MB RAM), and a Toshiba laptop running Windows 2000 Professional (with 384 MB RAM). Enlista is a peer-to-peer workgroup communications and collaboration product, designed for sharing information (primarily contacts, notes, and calendar entries) between multiple people.

By default, Enlista starts as a multi-paned Java window, with panes for folders (notes or calendars), contacts, items in the current folder, details of the current folder, and IM messages. Users can close individual panes, although they can not shift them to other parts of the screen.

Main observations:

• After installation (a 2.3 MB download on the Mac, and 12.8 MB on the Toshiba), users sign up for an Enlista account. This includes a nickname, first and second names, email address, and password. It's the same idea as signing up for an AIM user name, or a Hotmail account.

• Folders can store notes or calendar entries. Calendars can be stacked, hence enabling users to maintain a disparate set of calendar entries for business appointments, personal appointments, and birthdays, for example, and then viewing them together. A folder of calendar entries can be shared with a friend, and vice versa, enabling users to keep track of what others are up to. That's really nice. (Screenshot from Enlista)

• The distinction between "Contacts" and "Friends" is silly. A contact is someone that I know about and track details of, and a friend is someone that I want to exchange real-time IMs with. A person can be both a contact and a friend, which potentially leads to double entry of information. There didn't appear to be a way of changing a contact into a friend, either. It would be much more sensible to have contacts only, and additional fields on the contact card that enables display in the friends section. When clicking the "Chat" button, both contacts and friends display in the list, although users can only chat with friends.

• Sharing between people is done at the Folder level. Hence, when I create a folder within Enlista, I can assign sharing permissions to contacts or friends. Levels of permission include Full Control, Read Only, and Blocked. (Screenshot from Enlista) I shared a folder between the two user accounts I set up, and the changes to the note synchronized between the folders within seconds. However, there's no concept of co-editing of notes. If both users edit the same note simultaneously, one set of edits will be lost. That's bad.

• Only text notes can be shared between users, not real documents, eg, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AppleWorks, etc. That limits the usefulness of Enlista to content that can be created and maintained only within an Enlista folder.

• While the peer-to-peer sharing is nice, folders, contacts and notes are machine dependent. Hence, if I log into Enlista from a second machine, I don't see content and details that I've created on the first machine. That's less than ideal.

Other observations:

• Enlista didn't work quickly or well on the Toshiba laptop. Buttons were ghosted to parts of the screen they shouldn't have been. Refresh time was very slow. Dialog boxes took a long time to close. Hopefully that reflects badly on my Toshiba laptop, not Enlista.

• IM transcripts can be saved as a .TXT file during or after the IM session. That's nice for keeping a record of what was discussed. However, it would be more ideal to be able to save the transcript as a note associated with a contact/friend record in Enlista. I guess users could copy and paste the transcript into a note in an Enlista folder, though.

• Users can log into Enlista on more than one machine simultaneously.
  

News for Today, Dec 10

The news of the day:

• Enlista, a new entrant, released Enlista Classic 1.0, a multi-platform peer-to-peer collaboration product. Offers messaging, IM, offline access, presence, synchronization, contact management, among others. Targeted at workgroups. Supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Enlista
• Dell has embraced Microsoft's suite of collaboration tools as the foundation for its interactive and online teaming strategy. Includes the use of SharePoint Portal for internal portals, Office Live Communications for enterprise IM and presence, and Office Live Meeting for web conferencing. Microsoft
• MessageVine announced IM Access, an IM and presence offering for users with Qualcomm BREW-based phones. Requires carrier support. MessageVine (main press page)
• SearchDomino has a good piece on regulation compliance within a Domino world. Main points: Domino tools can aid with compliance on Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, and FDA 21 CFR 11, the new IBM Workplace for Business Controls and Reporting product aids with Sarbanes-Oxley s404 compliance, and Lotus Instant Messaging is not compliant out-of-the-box with Sarbanes-Oxley s409 (which requires the real-time reporting of events affecting a company's financial performance). SearchDomino

News for Today, Dec 9

Interesting things of the day:

• IsoSpace announced that its real-time collaboration and communication system that offers permanent, secure virtual team rooms has been certified as DoD compliant and interoperable with the DoD Defense Collaboration Tool Suite (DCTS). IsoSpace provides a " ... one page interface and complete set of features for enabling file storage management, co-editing, screen sharing, IM and email as well as VoIP mak[ing] it one of the most useful and intuitive collaboration and presentation systems available." IsoSpace
• Autonomy Corporation's Collaboration and Expertise Networks (CEN) product was awarded Product of the Year at the 2003 UK Information Management awards. CEN automatically captures, visualizes and manages areas of interest, knowledge and expertise held by people, thereby enabling " ... computers to form a contextual understanding of people's interests and on-going interaction with any type of information, regardless of format, location or device." Autonomy
• Research In Motion is working on a BlackBerry wireless handheld that can roam between wide area cellular networks and 802.11 LANs. No timeframe for a production-ready release was given. RIM is playing catchup to Palm OS and Microsoft Pocket PC in WLAN support. eWeek CNET News
• Orsus Solutions released Version 5.2 of its Orsus Mobile Framework, a platform for the graphical development, deployment and management of mobile applications. Supports the RIM BlackBerry, Pocket PC 2003, and expanded support for the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. Provides wireless access to data in enterprise applications, eg, CRM, ERP, and enterprise portals. Orsus
• Nemertes Research published a report saying that "90% of IT executives say their employees use IM, even if it's not officially sanctioned." Nemertes expects 57% of organizations to have a production enterprise IM system within 6 months, up from 37% today. Nemertes
• Stowe Boyd merged two complementary blogs on real-time technologies. "Timing" and "Instant Messaging Industry Insider" have been merged into Get Real ('collaborative, real-time & social technologies'), published by Corante. Get Real
• AT&T Wireless and Microsoft introduced an over-the-air provisioning service for customers to set up their Motorola MPx200 phone for access to personal and work email, Web sites, and applications. The MPx200 is based on Microsoft Windows Mobile. AT&T Wireless

News for Today, Dec 8

Here's what's up:

• PresenceWorks, an early advocate of cross-public IM network presence services, has gone. Matt Smith, its founder, now works for AOL Time Warner.
• AOL's next version of the AIM client will include integrated video conferencing. Due early 2004, and requires Windows XP on the desktop. IMPlanet
• InfoWorld published some extracts from a debate between Jon Udell and P. J. Connolly on "whether Web services will be the catalyst for the transformation of [enterprise] collaboration, and how". Items discussed are presence awareness "becom[ing] a platform-neutral Web service" (to solve the current problem of people having to use the same software platform), XMPP vs. SIP/SIMPLE, and others. InfoWorld
• ARNnet found that IBM is catching up with pure-play portal vendors, eg, Plumtree. " ... WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms 5.0, ... improves administration, document management, search and collaboration. Moreover, two included portlet builders (for Domino and SQL) enable business analysts to quickly access and manipulate data in enterprise applications." ARNnet
• Yahoo issued an update for its Yahoo Messenger IM client, to resolve the security vulnerability publicized recently. Yahoo thought that only a small percentage of its customers would be affected by the vulnerability. ZDNet
• Geekzone, a New Zealand site with reporting on wireless issues, says that Vodafone NZ is planning to introduce the Handspring Treo 600 this month or next month. The editor published a review of the Treo. Geekzone

News for Today, Dec 5

The activities of the last day:

• Luidia Inc., a new company created when Electronics for Imaging spun off its eBeam division in September, made contact via email. Luidia sells the eBeam interactive whiteboard system, that captures writing and drawings from a regular whiteboard into a PC and Mac. The eBeam can be broadcast between sites, for enhanced Web conferencing. Its most recent product, the eBeam System 3, supports Bluetooth-based networking, thus saving on extra cords in meeting rooms. Luidia
• Ingenux Inc. released Version 3.1 of OneVision, a web-based intranet groupware solution for business communication and collaboration. Offers a web workspace, and over 19 integrated applications, tools and utilities (email, group calendaring and scheduling, discussion groups, IM, document management, etc). Supports Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. Ingenux
• Synchrologic released Version 5.4 of its Synchrologic Mobile Suite, a push-based wireless messaging server add-on for Microsoft Exchange. Synchrologic
• IMPlanet published a report on the use of IM logging, archiving, and management solutions, with a particular focus on regulatory compliance in financial services and healthcare, and a proposition that the energy sector is next. Mentions IMlogic (used by Amerex Energy), Akonix (used at Truman Arnold Companies), and FaceTime (used by Gulf South Pipeline and Dominion Energy Clearinghouse). IMPlanet
• Novell added Exchange Server 2003 support to Ximian Connector, its Linux-based email and workgroup information management application. ITWeb
• IDC published its 2003-2007 report on the messaging market, with a top line estimate of messaging applications market revenue of $2.4 billion by 2007. To reach this, IDC encourages businesses to "look beyond today's tactical spending environment and think strategically about the role messaging applications will play in their future." IDC

News for Today, Dec 4

Happenings of the day:

• Darwin Magazine published an interesting piece on email vs. portal-based collaborative team workspaces, with an emphasis on a potential mid-way point: email-based team workspaces so that users don't have to change their communication habits away from email. The authors profile the Kubi Client, the cross-mail client team workspace plug in for Notes and Outlook from Kubi Software, and discuss its pros and cons. DarwinMag
• Softalk Limited released WorkgroupShare for Outlook, a server program (3.0MB) plus plug-in for Outlook (1.4MB) that enables users to share calendars, contacts, notes and tasks without requiring an Exchange Server. Supports synchronization of information over a LAN and the Internet. (Comment: sounds suitable for intra-organizational sharing of details, but not cross-organizational). WorkGroupShare
• Merrill Lynch, a long time stronghold for Microsoft technologies, is deploying Microsoft Office 2003, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, and other technologies for its next-generation Research Analyst Workbench. A key aim is to deliver research content to clients via the RixML standard (the Research Information eXchange Markup Language). Merrill Lynch
• James Watson from WhatPC? interviewed Ambuj Goyal of Lotus re the impact of collaboration technology. Points covered: what Lotus is good at, the key messages CIOs are giving at the moment, the need for collaborative workplaces, J2EE vs. .NET, SCO on Linux, and on-demand computing. WhatPC? (UK)
• Secunia Ltd, a security research house, published details of a security vulnerability in Yahoo! Messenger client. The buffer overrun vulnerability could enable an attacker to compromise data stored on the user's PC. InfoWorld
• BMW is dumping its current HP OpenMail and Netscape Mail client email infrastructure in favor of the latest offerings from Microsoft, delivered via an 'on-demand' outsourced arrangement. It hopes to have the new system up and running by the middle of 2005 for 60,000 staff. computing.co.uk (Comment: sounds like a long time for a migration via an outsourced provider.)

News for Today, Dec 3

There's a bit been going on during the last 24 hours:

• Groove Networks released a recorded webcast on the use of Groove Workspace Project Edition (which integrates the standard Groove Workspace product with project management functionality developed by ISV TeamDirection). ITworld (Free Registration Required)
• Convea released Version 5.2 of Convea Enterprise, its enterprise platform for communication, collaboration and coordination. Offers users a modular, Web-based approach to groupware and portals. The actual updates in the product are minor. Convea
• Versant Corporation announced that its data management technology (called VDS) has been integrated into the LiveDrive collaborative document preparation system developed by Chasseral. "LiveDrive is a real-time collaboration platform that enables collaborative editing of documents that require contributions from various people. Authors, reviewers, and bid managers can work together on the same document in real-time. LiveDrive uses Microsoft Word as the client program in conjunction with another Chasseral product, Collaboration Manager for Word, and utilizes VDS as the repository for the documents and all the associated in-process and stored state. The shared access, instant access to all document changes, and audit trail requirements demand an object-oriented database. Versant's VDS efficiently stores the data about the state of the system. Its object technology ideally complements LiveDrive." Versant About LiveDrive
• DiamondWare announced Palantir, a collaborative product for secure IM, presence and availability, voice communications, and conferencing. Provides persistent communication channels using text or voice, as appropriate, with presence and availability. DiamondWare Palantir
• Plumtree is hosting a meeting and reception for the Public Sector to discuss the Plumtree Enterprise Web Development Kit, the integration of the Plumtree Rich Media Server with the Plumtree Corporate Portal, and the integration of document management with the Plumtree Corporate Portal. Date is December 9th, at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington VA. Plumtree (Registration Required)
• Sedgwick Claims Management Services has embraced Microsoft's new suite of communication and collaboration tools to develop internal portals, knowledge sharing systems, etc. "The Portal replaces the traditional intranet with an active, individualized system for assuring that our colleagues succeed in serving our clients." Sedgwick CMS
• Early adopters of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 found an install problem that prevents SharePoint from installing correctly. Microsoft is working on a solution. ZDNet
• Five councils in Bedfordshire implemented knowledge management technology from Hyperwave. Includes a portal (delivering transaction-based e-government services), team workspace capabilities, workflow, and e-learning. Initial users are council staff members. Contentmanager.de
• Bloor Research has some words of wisdom on the challenges of integrating multiple departmental portals into a cohesive enterprise whole. To wit, the author quotes Microsoft's "20,000 team-based portals based on ... SharePoint", and notes that if these had been developed using multi-vendor products, the integration headaches would be enormous. IT-Analysis.com (UK)