Microsoft Office Groove

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Microsoft Office Groove 2007 (Windows)

The Workspace in Microsoft Office Groove 2007
Developer:	Microsoft
OS:	Microsoft Windows
Use:	Office program
License:	Proprietary
Website:	www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Office Groove is a proprietary peer-to-peer software package aimed at businesses, developed by Groove Networks of Beverly, Massachusetts and later by Microsoft who announced its acquisition of Groove Networks in March 2005. It is included with the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Microsoft Office 2007 and can be obtained as a standalone application.

At its most basic level, Groove is desktop software designed to facilitate collaboration and communication among small groups. It is a Windows-based commercial product initially developed by Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie (former CEO of Iris Associates). The central Groove paradigm is the shared workspace, a set of files to be shared plus some aids for group collaboration. A Groove user creates a workspace and then invites other Groove users into it. Each person who responds to an invitation becomes a member of that workspace and is sent a copy of the workspace that is installed on his or her hard drive. All data is encrypted both on disk and over the network, with each workspace having a unique set of cryptographic keys. This local copy avoids the physical distance between the user and his data. In other words, a workspace is the private virtual location where users who are members interact and collaborate. From that moment on, Groove keeps all the copies synchronized via the Internet (through central servers hosted by Microsoft or Groove servers in the corporate network). When any one member makes a change to the workspace, that change is sent to all users and documents are automatically updated. Though lacking features of a full blown document management system, it does avoid the problem of multiple updates being sent as email attachments to team members. If that member is offline at the time the change is made, the change is queued and synchronized to other workspace members when the member comes back online (see horizon of connectivity). If two or more people edit a document at the same time, multiple copies are kept for the editors to agree which changes to retain. Via the workspace, one or more peers (members) now have a context for collaboration.

Groove's basic set of services (including always-on security, persistent chat, store-and-forward messaging delivery, firewall/NAT transparency, ad-hoc group formation, and change notification) may be customized with tools. Tools are mini-applications that rely on Groove's underlying functionality to disseminate and synchronize their contents with other members' copies of the workspace. Groove provides many tools that can be used in a workspace to customize the functionality of each space (for example, calendar, discussion, file sharing, outliner, pictures, notepad, sketchpad, Web browser, etc.). After a member creates the workspace, the tools that members use in the workspace drive the nature of the person-to-person collaboration that ensues. Tools can be added or removed as needed.

Groove is only available for Microsoft Windows. Many of its security concepts are similar to Lotus Notes. Groove uses its own Simple Symmetrical Transmission Protocol (SSTP) for communicating with other Groove users.[1] Groove's prime uses have been in coordinating between emergency relief agencies where different organizations don't share a common security infrastructure and where offline access is important, and amongst teams of knowledge workers such as consultants who need to work securely on client sites. It is also used as a staging system for documents in development, where content can be worked up then transferred to a portal when complete.