P2P with Groove
By Bill Pitzer
While Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing has been in the limelight recently with media darlings like Napster, many seem confused about what P2P really means. By strict definition, P2P refers to direct communication between individuals in a decentralized environment. The recording industry fears this decentralized model because it lets any person on such a network host and distribute content which, by its very design, is hard to track.
Although swapping MP3 files with other employees at work is hardly a way to generate revenue for your organization, many new contenders in this space point to the value that this sort of collaborative tool brings to a business. One such contender is Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes and the Groove Networks' P2P platform. Billed as "Internet-communications software," Groove hopes its platform will become the standard platform on which users collaborate. Business tasks could also benefit from better communication, but Groove wants to show that its product lets people collaborate better, even outside the context of business communications.
Groove uses a concept of shared and collaborative areas, called Shared Spaces. You create Shared Spaces that let others communicate with you. For example, after setting up a Conversation Space, you can invite others to chat, share documents, exchange files, or perform any other function that's configured to run in every client's version of Groove.
