How do groupware products compare?
The category of groupware that’s been discussed recently has been real-time conferencing. Within the real-time conferencing category, there are several sub-categories that these products fit into, which are described below. • SHARED DOCUMENTS (Aspects) Aspects allows users on a network to work together on shared documents. Aspects works by initially sending a shared document to everyone in a conference. Aspects works by synchronizing the documents, letter by letter, in real-time. The result is that when one person makes a change, the people who have that document see it instantly. Aspects allows people to take turns editing (medium or full mediation), or to actually type simultaneously, as long as they’re in separate paragraphs (free for all). Aspects also has a Chat Box component (see below), which can be used to comment on the shared document or it can be used independently for online discussion or brainstorming. • ONLINE DISCUSSIONS/CHATTING (Aspects, Daedalus) This is the area in w
