🚀 go-pugleaf

JB8625A@auvm.american.edu (James J. Brennan)

There are two types of group ware and each faces a different set of problems,
in my experience.  The first kind is "meeting support" that augments a
face-to-face meeting in a conference room.  People assemble, and interlace a
normal meeting with agendas/viewgraphs/whiteboard support, with computer
supported parts to the meeting.
The computer support is for brainstorming, idea categorization, voting and
ranking etc.
The second kind is "project support" and involves linking desktops of a team
together
so file sharing and real-time communication can take place.  Where as the
former is synchronous in time and space, the latter is dispersed in time and
space.

In attempting to introduce the meeting support, I attempted to find a sharable
conference room in our facility that could be converted to a
computer-supported meeting room.  This requires someone to provide the room. 
There is need for specialized furniture, an overhead projector that can tap
out of the computer, a server, PCs at each station and so on.  Hence the cost
of set up goes high.  So I attempted to garner support from several
departments, who were asked to chip in; each got access and use of the room at
a fraction of the cost that it would take them otherwise.  I thought I made a
pretty good pitch, technically and business-wise.  But it flopped.  I had not
created the "wanna do" attitude.  Sort of like when you come across the
mail-order-music ads where you know you can get a terrific bargain if you were
interested in spending money on music - but since you are not, you can pass on
the opportunity - and knowing the opportunity will come around again.   So, if
I were to try again, I would learn a lesson from the marketing types who know
how to create the urge to join/participate/buy.  For instance, every one else
is doing it or your competitor is doing it or I have located some surplus
hardware to use as servers and if we dont set up the room with groupware NOW,
the cost will be so much higher the next time etc.  You get the drift.

The second type of project support is still being pursued.  I am unable to
comment on it much.  However, I can say that there are some technical hurdles.
 The system that I am interested in runs on DOS, but most of the folks in the
project are MW Windows users.  How to tempt them to use a DOS based system? 
The need to convince management is not so great, since no facility allocation
or capital purchase is required.  Mostly it is a matter of getting the
software and designating the heftiest machine on the net as the server node. 
So, this may come down to be mostly a technical problem combined with a
cultural/psychological problem of getting the team to ACTUALLY use it after
the licensing and installing is done.

** Views expressed here are my own **
Sri Sridharan