Be careful when filling out a v-card that is meant for a Groove workspace. A recent error surfaced recentlythat requires that a first and family name must be filled out in v-card or you will likely get an error.
A fix is in the works.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Groove 2007 Templates
It always makes sense to use templates rather than do things from scratch. Here is the best place to go and get up to date on time saving template tools:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?freetext=template&productID=20BE712B-2F07-4AC1-A9BB-E4CEF2AA331E&categoryId=&period=&sortCriteria=popularity&nr=20&DisplayLang=en
Think of these as much richer versions of the Groove 3.1 Rapid Solutions templates. Each tool comes with detailed user documentation. Small rapid training videos will be coming soon because we all hate to read the User Guides :-)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?freetext=template&productID=20BE712B-2F07-4AC1-A9BB-E4CEF2AA331E&categoryId=&period=&sortCriteria=popularity&nr=20&DisplayLang=en
Think of these as much richer versions of the Groove 3.1 Rapid Solutions templates. Each tool comes with detailed user documentation. Small rapid training videos will be coming soon because we all hate to read the User Guides :-)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Chris Rue rants on Groove
http://www.chrisrue.com/funcave/2008/02/the-segway-of-software.html
Chris is a great an insightful character (the Unknown MVP) who some months ago made a full length review of Groove. While I can't argue many points, there were some glaring differences of opinion or I should say rather that in the last few months many things have become clear and available that IF someone was communicating this to the community and to Microsoft the blog would be different. The MVP Summit allowed me to get a grip on the situation and start teaching people what the real story was and how working together would turn Groove into a tool everyone would derive a huge benefit from , a benefit they could hare with their clients. So stay tuned for the Emancipation of Groove (not just a Sharepoint client).
Chris is a great an insightful character (the Unknown MVP) who some months ago made a full length review of Groove. While I can't argue many points, there were some glaring differences of opinion or I should say rather that in the last few months many things have become clear and available that IF someone was communicating this to the community and to Microsoft the blog would be different. The MVP Summit allowed me to get a grip on the situation and start teaching people what the real story was and how working together would turn Groove into a tool everyone would derive a huge benefit from , a benefit they could hare with their clients. So stay tuned for the Emancipation of Groove (not just a Sharepoint client).
Best Group Sizes for Groove
There have often been discussions lately as to the feasibility of the size of a Groove workspace. This has as much to do behind the purpose of the Groove in the first place. In my opinion Groove was really designed for groups up to say 25 or so. But most collaboraiton is among groups of 5-15. But Groove can entertain much larger numbers. The trick is to make collaboration effective and many people will argue this till blue in the face.
Based on some of the workspaces I have worked with, Groove is on average comprised of groups in the 45 range and some are over 150 in size (developer group). Keep in mind you are only storing data that is part of the workspace not the data of 150 users. That said it came back to the collaboration being done and Groove has some minor issues with calendaring and notifications which just don't do well unless you use some amazingly clean and handy tools from Hommes and Process. Then Grove takes a big leap forward. Hommes and Process put back what was sorely missing from Groove when it became part of Office 2007.
Now things like dropping docs form anywhere into Groove (and precisely to the workspace you want is as easy and saving in Office) and emails can also be dropped to Grove workspaces with the flick of a mouse click. Do check http://www.hommesetprocess.com/en
But back to the size issue.
I think you have to decide what it is you are trying to disseminate as information to a specific set of people in Groove and if you need to repeat specific messages but with different groups, how much versioning one does, if the information might be more of a dictation rather than a forum for discussion. And finally is there a need for people to be up to date on the data in a workspace?
Its not cut and dry and at a certian point (250 users) Groove should not be used as a solution but rather Sharepoint.
More on this again with a user group we'll talk about later.
Based on some of the workspaces I have worked with, Groove is on average comprised of groups in the 45 range and some are over 150 in size (developer group). Keep in mind you are only storing data that is part of the workspace not the data of 150 users. That said it came back to the collaboration being done and Groove has some minor issues with calendaring and notifications which just don't do well unless you use some amazingly clean and handy tools from Hommes and Process. Then Grove takes a big leap forward. Hommes and Process put back what was sorely missing from Groove when it became part of Office 2007.
Now things like dropping docs form anywhere into Groove (and precisely to the workspace you want is as easy and saving in Office) and emails can also be dropped to Grove workspaces with the flick of a mouse click. Do check http://www.hommesetprocess.com/en
But back to the size issue.
I think you have to decide what it is you are trying to disseminate as information to a specific set of people in Groove and if you need to repeat specific messages but with different groups, how much versioning one does, if the information might be more of a dictation rather than a forum for discussion. And finally is there a need for people to be up to date on the data in a workspace?
Its not cut and dry and at a certian point (250 users) Groove should not be used as a solution but rather Sharepoint.
More on this again with a user group we'll talk about later.
MVP SUMMIT – No email but there was Groove
You would think that the last thing you would expect while on Microsoft’s campus is a lack of connectivity (but let me iterate this was in one building and no one is perfect, Steve Ballmer humorously made that point in the MVP closing keynote) . But there it was, at a least one building we were in particular became a study in patience. When it seemed I may have found a connection after 50 tries it seemed I was once again foiled from sending my emails BUT funny enough Groove actions and interactions (mail, IM’s, discussions etc.) were somehow bypassing this problem. I did however need to get some details of a meeting to the new MVP Community director Toby Richards and with 2 hours to do I was a little stressed. But Groove was there for me again. I just copied the email contents, put it into a Groove message and sent it to my Groove PG who, since he is a Microsoft employee, and had an internal link, took the message, popped it into an email and sent it off to my very important recipient (and cc’d me) . Imagine my surprise at how many people later told me were beside themselves with no email access. But at least there was Groove. The fact that Groove is a secure peer to peer collaboration tool means that as long as you can reach the internet you can get connected quickly, get your communications out and business done!
MY Groove Workspace disappeared! Or the Watch the Up Folder button lesson
Groove hasn’t exactly been around along time so it is no hard to imagine that when a particularly scary problem cropped up I couldn’t quite figure out what had happened at first. I thought I had played with every button but....
There is a little button in the bottom let corner that allows you to move folder levels and if you move to a folder level in which nothing has been deposited and if you ended up there by mistake, it would appear that your workspace it gone. As long as you know this little silly secret , you’ll likely save yourself and big headache.
There is a little button in the bottom let corner that allows you to move folder levels and if you move to a folder level in which nothing has been deposited and if you ended up there by mistake, it would appear that your workspace it gone. As long as you know this little silly secret , you’ll likely save yourself and big headache.
Disaster Relief – Why using Groove will keep you from losing control.
After the third time a client of mine was relieved of a few too many computers I started to think about what would happen if a fire totally destroyed the building they were in. It made for an interesting process by which it became clear that Groove was the one gem no one ever thought of as part of their disaster relief planning. No amount of backups was going to even begin to compare to the fact that with Groove (in a scenario where we share the workspace with our client) our firm could immediately start the recovery process for our client. Let me explain:
The Groove workspace contains some of following critical pieces of information:
IT schematic: cabling, servers, systems by departments, user details all the way out to the ISP details
Complete Hardware Asset Listing with specifics of each piece of equipment as well as date of purchase, warranty details, serial number
Complete Software Licence Inventory: Including Software Assurance benefits with expiration dates, usage to date, type: OEM, upgrades, volume purchasing
Security and Storage: often the IT is also responsible in some capacity for the security system: when and how they are installed, how accessed externally etc as well as of-site storage for backups. That information and how to get a hold of things like backups is critical details to access since it may take days to retrieve .
The additional benefit for both client and outsource in this particular scenario is that the outsource can be proactive with the client for renewals, budgets and issue tracking (jut some of the things you can do in Groove) without having to go through email. The whole IT outsource engagement is far superior for the person responsible on the client side. It also helps the outsource to better manage the client.
It will never be a question that if the time ever comes the Groove solution is not only a valuable tool it is also a new way for IT firms to manage their client base.
The Groove workspace contains some of following critical pieces of information:
IT schematic: cabling, servers, systems by departments, user details all the way out to the ISP details
Complete Hardware Asset Listing with specifics of each piece of equipment as well as date of purchase, warranty details, serial number
Complete Software Licence Inventory: Including Software Assurance benefits with expiration dates, usage to date, type: OEM, upgrades, volume purchasing
Security and Storage: often the IT is also responsible in some capacity for the security system: when and how they are installed, how accessed externally etc as well as of-site storage for backups. That information and how to get a hold of things like backups is critical details to access since it may take days to retrieve .
The additional benefit for both client and outsource in this particular scenario is that the outsource can be proactive with the client for renewals, budgets and issue tracking (jut some of the things you can do in Groove) without having to go through email. The whole IT outsource engagement is far superior for the person responsible on the client side. It also helps the outsource to better manage the client.
It will never be a question that if the time ever comes the Groove solution is not only a valuable tool it is also a new way for IT firms to manage their client base.
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