Verosee for Windows: Workspaces for Skype, Oct 20

I received an email from Jim Asiano earlier today, letting me know that Verosee for Skype was available for beta testing. Being rather overwhelmed at the moment, I decided to click on the link for a quick read, but got caught when I saw it had to do with "workspaces for Skype". And, well, stuff happened, and now you get to hear about it too.

What is Verosee
Here is how Verosee describes its offering:

Verosee extends Skype™ to provide free workspaces that automatically synchronize files and chats—with or without an Internet connection—and eradicate the disorganization inherent to exchanging email attachments and portable media. Verosee enables team members to be contextually aware of each other’s status and activities, bringing convergence throughout the project life cycle—before, during, and after meetings.

Installation Experience
My experience with installing Verosee on my Tecra M4 was:

• Visit the Verosee Download page. I gulped when it said the file size was "99 MB" (3 times the size of Groove Virtual Office), but it appeared to only download 36.4 MB. Verosee requires Windows 2000 or XP, Internet Explorer, and Skype 1.4 or beyond. No Mac version is available.


• Post installation, I launched Skype with the expectation of seeing something different. When nothing showed, I clicked on the "Verosee arg" icon that had been added to my Windows desktop. It ran some stuff, and then asked me to register. I had to lie when registering though, since there was no "New Zealand". BTW, my favorite movie at the moment is this one (blame Eric!)



• There were a number of spelling errors ("beeing" sted "being") and English grammatical errors in the set up process ... but nothing too bad for a beta release.


• The activation key arrived quickly. I clicked the button on the Tecra M4, and then by the time I'd read the dialog box and shifted over to the PowerBook, the activation key had arrived by mail. I like it when things work that well.


• Once all that guff was done, I was asked if I wanted to allow another program to access Skype. When I said yes, my Skype buddy list was sucked into Verosee and shown on the left-hand side of the new screen. On the right hand side, there is a large area called "Space", which didn't seem to do much. I couldn't work out what it did.



• Then it was time to create a shared space. I was asked to give a name to the new space, to associate it with an existing Project (or to create a new one), and whether I wanted to invite other people to the space. I invited Eric ... I hope his Tablet is working at the moment! Here's what the space looked like once I added a document, and a chat item.



• There are some definite places where the user interface needs some work. As I said, I couldn't figure out the rationale for the "Space" pane. There are also some missing visual cues, such as expansion icons on lists of projects and spaces. But ... this is just a beta ... so I'm sure they'll come. Also, I found the product a bit unresponsive ... it wouldn't quickly perform the function I asked, even though my Tecra M4 has 1 GB of memory on board. If only I could try it out on the Mac ...


• The overall structure of Verosee reminded me of Groove Virtual Office, but without a lot of the extras. There's a threaded chat area, a file store, and in-space / in-project / online / offline presence display. Users can initiate a multi-party Skype conference call from within a space, but I couldn't see how to initiate a person-to-person IM chat. In terms of "projects", it seems like it is merely for the purpose of grouping spaces, rather than doing something special. Each space also offers Search capabilities.

Reaction
Here's my initial reaction:

• It's a neat idea. Integrating shared spaces capabilities with Skype is a first as far as I'm aware. I haven't seen it done with AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or the other instant interaction clients on the market.


• The size of the download is going to put off a lot of people. I understand that there is a lot included in the product, but, it's big. You would have to be certain that this is ready for prime time before advocating this to a group of people.


• I'd like to be able to right-click on a user in my Skype client, and see the list of spaces we share. It doesn't appear to offer this today.

Net-net: If you like testing new stuff, try it out. If you want to do real work immediately, work with other existing products.

What Do You Think?
Is this of interest to you? Are you going to try it out? Let me know by email, send me a Verosee invite, or leave a comment below.

Comments

[Rick Lillie]

Hi Michael,

My research work focuses on blending technologies to deliver the distance-learning experience. I am an accounting professor and teach online courses for both CalState San Bernardino and UCLA Extension.

I use Blackboard as a web portal for both my live and online courses. Additionally, I use the combination of Skype/Festoon/Groove to add communication, interaction, and collaboration to my courses.

Verosee is interesting because of its interaction with Skype. I'm looking at it as a possible alternative to the Groove workspace and to the Blackboard "Group pages" feature.

I am also looking at a hosted service called "Mionet." This service has interesting collaborative potential.

I would be happy to talk with you about the work that I am doing. Please contact me by email and I'll send you my Skype contact name.

Dr. Rick Lillie
CSUSB

[Bill Wood]

Michael, any further thoughts on Verosee? I've tried to get the beta but they haven't sent it to me yet.

- Bill

[Michael Sampson]

Bill, I just downloaded it from the Verosee download page, at http://www.verosee.com/site/actionDownloadVerosee.do. Did that not work for you?
M.

[Bill Wood]

Finally got Verosee up and running last night. Seems to be very early days for this product, has some Groove-like features like chat and file sharing but not much else available now. Really useful services like screen sharing and offline access are extra-cost addins (quite expensive too) and aren't available yet.

The install is very bloated, because Verosee is loading down a complete Java runtime environment. This doesn't make sense since you need to have Java installed to begin with before installing Verosee in order to use "Web Start".

An embarassing glitch in the copy I loaded last night is that whenever you invite someone to a workspace, it prefixes "I love you" to the invitation! Reminds me of the "I love you" virus from 2001.

- Bill

[Michael Sampson]

Glad you got in okay Bill ... yes, I've noticed "I love you" in the invitations I've received ... not good.

[Bill Wood]

They are removing "I love you" due to popular request - see http://share.skype.com/directory/verosee_free_workspaces_for_skype/view/?mosmsg=Thanks+For+Your+Vote%21

[Pablo]

Hi Michael, here is a detailed analysis on why the size Verosee download makes sense. Regards, Pablo
http://bertorello.blogspot.com/2005/11/joys-and-tribulations-of-massive-java.html

[Pablo Bertorello]

Michael, Dr. Rick, Bill: thanks for your feedback. Verosee's download size is now 80% smaller. Also, Verosee FileVersioning, OfflineSynch, and DesktopSharing services are available.

[Pablo Bertorello]

New Verosee forum!
http://forum.verosee.com