Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Groupware BAD, Users GOOD
My favorite quote:
An interesting insight (from someone who was there) on the *other* reason Netscape went down the tubes, and why groupware (with Business Process Management, Workflow and all of the other buzzw.... ZZZZZZZZZ) is never interesting to anyone outside of a corporation.
OK, here's my other favorite quote:
Heh.
I would half-heartedly defend Exchange as groupware if it weren't so terrible at doing everything it tries. Did you know that in Exchange 2000 if you send out a meeting invitation and someone forwards it back to you, you suddenly lose control of that meeting? You're just another invitee, and can no longer manage the meeting BECAUSE YOU DON'T OWN IT ANY MORE.
It's pretty common for people in my company to forward an invitation on to someone else they think would benefit from the meeting, and also copy the meeting originator to let them know that there's someone else attending. And it ruins the meeting, every single time. Now the originator needs to send out a new meeting invitation, telling all the invitees to delete the old meeting notice manually, and accept the new one.
It does something similar when you accidentally invite yourself to a meeting. There are some other things going on here, too... if the invitee is editing the invite at the time, for example, or if there are Blackberries involved. Anyway.
Link to jwz's ranty rant ¶ 2/16/2005 12:53:00 PM
If you want to do something that's going to change the world, build software that people want to use instead of software that managers want to buy.
An interesting insight (from someone who was there) on the *other* reason Netscape went down the tubes, and why groupware (with Business Process Management, Workflow and all of the other buzzw.... ZZZZZZZZZ) is never interesting to anyone outside of a corporation.
OK, here's my other favorite quote:
Your "use case" should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?
Heh.
I would half-heartedly defend Exchange as groupware if it weren't so terrible at doing everything it tries. Did you know that in Exchange 2000 if you send out a meeting invitation and someone forwards it back to you, you suddenly lose control of that meeting? You're just another invitee, and can no longer manage the meeting BECAUSE YOU DON'T OWN IT ANY MORE.
It's pretty common for people in my company to forward an invitation on to someone else they think would benefit from the meeting, and also copy the meeting originator to let them know that there's someone else attending. And it ruins the meeting, every single time. Now the originator needs to send out a new meeting invitation, telling all the invitees to delete the old meeting notice manually, and accept the new one.
It does something similar when you accidentally invite yourself to a meeting. There are some other things going on here, too... if the invitee is editing the invite at the time, for example, or if there are Blackberries involved. Anyway.
Link to jwz's ranty rant ¶ 2/16/2005 12:53:00 PM
