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Adrian Midgley wrote: > > Small company, Internet startup, dispersed but technically Ok albeit mostly > with Windows. > > What does the panel think a groupware solution might be based on? Depends what you are trying to achieve. Having used Lotus Notes in Windows only and cross platform environments, I would say it can do most things people want from groupware, but it wasn't simple or easy to use (This was at a computer support and consultancy company, and at a group of extremely able engineers - so the average user was probably more technically competent than the average Internet startup staff - mechnical engineers are usually computer gurus, I suspect computing is more interesting than mechanical engineering ;). Good Notes administration makes rocket science look like the simple application of conservation of momemtum. Mostly administration was nightmarish as the product had grown over time, and some times a simple change required pushing related information into zillions of different places - and why the security might satisfy the CIA finding an administrator who actually understands it to that level is next to impossible.... >From a technical perspective I was amused by the way Lotus Notes used time stamp for replication activity without checking if the two machines even agreed on the decade (Although recovering my work when this happened was not so amusing). A good yard stick to measure your choice by though, but I wouldn't recommend it unless it has must have features. Replication is less important these days, when not having an Internet connection is considered so unfashionable. Replication was the USP - and I'm assured Exchange never caught up. > In another context the Devon local medical committees are looking at Wiki, > having used FirstClass, then CIX conferencing with Ameol, and I'm much > impressed but think it is more use for preparing handbook sort of documents, > and for collaborative authoring, than for the sort of thing Outlook/Exchange > Server is aimed at. Which bits of Outlook/Exchange? News (NNTP) servers are quite good for conference/discussion work and allows correspondents to pick their own favourite newsreader. It helps if people understand proper Usenet style etiquette - some news readers do not encourage good netiquette. The expiry of news articles isn't necessary if you have the disk space. IMAP4 servers allow simple folder sharing of e-mail - I use the Washington Uni one, although I'm assured that the other free one scales better. One or two common mail programs don't implement IMAP4 well, but you can use Netscape Communicator on all platforms as a minimum free client, you can even fairly safely wait till said mail programs fail before switching to a.n.other. Calendar sharing software should be the easiest stuff in the world to write, but I've not used a good cross platform tool, never been asked to find one. Although I have seen some fairly decent web based tools for this sort of thing, having a little applet locally to remind you when to do things is vital. iCAL is the standard to watch according to the mental notes I made. Groupware, like Remote User VPN technologies, are underused technologies. I think M$ NetMeeting is great, and I'm amazed Microsoft never charged for it. Is there some really good free product they were trying to eliminate from the market that I missed, or did Bill make a mistake? Simon -- Are you using the Internet to best effect ? www.eighth-layer.com Tel: +44(0)1395 232769 ICQ: 116952768 Moderated discussion of teleworking at news:uk.business.telework -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.