Groove invitations are more than you think!  If the person you are inviting is not a known "Groover" to you what actually happens is an exchange of credentials and a "three way handshake" so you can bi-directionally authenticate each other.  Also it is worthwhile to remember that while the new member is getting the workspace the invitor and the invitee must be on line at the same time - so IM or pick up the phone!!

 

Here's some more minutiae:

 

Inviting someone to a workspace

To invite someone to a workspace:

1.     Go to the workspace.

2.     In the Workspace Members panel, enter the name or e-mail address of the recipient in the Invite to Workspace box.

Invitation addressing details: When you a type a name, Groove searches for a Groove contact that matches the letters you're typing. You can also select a contact from the drop-down menu, which includes all Groove contacts recognized by your account: this includes contacts you've added to your personal list in the Launchbar, as well as contacts who are members of other workspaces.

If Groove can't find a match for the name you type, you're prompted to search for the contact.

Click More to see more options for adding or finding recipients in the Add Recipients dialog box.

3.     Click Go to open the Send Invitation dialog box.

4.     Assign a role to the recipient(s) from the drop-down list.

If you are inviting multiple contacts and want to assign different roles, you must send separate invitations per role.

In addition, unless you're a Manager in the workspace, you can only assign invitees the same role assigned to you (Participants assign the role of "Participant" and Guests assign the role of "Guest"). See About roles and permissions for more information.

5.     If you want to confirm the invitees' invitation acceptance, check Require acceptance confirmation.

Note: This feature is automatically enabled for all invitations sent via e-mail.

6.     Add message text if desired.

7.     Click Invite to send the invitation.

Groove does the following depending on the type of recipient(s) you selected:

• For Groove contacts, Groove sends the invitation as a Groove message.
• For e-mail addresses, Groove sends the invitation via Microsoft Outlook as an e-mail message with a file attachment.

The message contains instructions both for people who already have Groove, and for those who don't. People who already have Groove click a link in the message that opens the invitation. People who don't have Groove click a different link that goes to the Groove download page. Once an e-mail recipient installs and starts up Groove, the workspace invitation should open automatically. If the invitation fails to open automatically, the recipient can return to the e-mail message and open the file attachment to respond to the invitation.

All invitations sent via e-mail require the sender to confirm acceptance before the workspace is sent to the recipient's computer.

Note: If you don't have a Microsoft Outlook e-mail client, a message displays informing you that you cannot send the invitation using this feature. The message describes an alternative e-mail invitation process, which is to copy the invitation to the clipboard and then paste it into another e-mail or messaging client.

You can also start the invitation process from any workspace list. Select the workspace and click Invite to Workspace in the Common Tasks pane to open the Send Invitation dialog box.

Invitation alerts

When you send an invitation, Groove keeps you informed about its progress by posting alerts.

Note: For e-mail recipients, you don't see progress alerts until they open file attachment. From the table below, the first alert you might see is "Inviting Invitee": Opened, waiting for reply..."

The table below summarizes the invitation progress alerts:

Notification	Meaning
Inviting "Invitee": Waiting to send...	Groove cannot yet send the invitation. The sender's computer may be offline or may not currently have a live network or relay service connection.
Inviting "Invitee": Sending, % complete...	Groove is sending the invitation either to the invitee's computer or to the relay service (if the invitee's computer is offline).
Inviting "Invitee": Sent, waiting for delivery...	The invitation left the sender's computer and will get delivered if the invitee is online. If the invitee is offline, the invitation is routed to the relay service.
Inviting "Invitee": Delivered, waiting for invitee to open...	The invitation has reached the invitee's computer.
Inviting "Invitee": Opened, waiting for reply...	The invitee has opened the invitation, and now must decide whether to accept or decline it.
Inviting "Invitee": Invitation Accepted.	The invitee has accepted the invitation but Groove is not yet sending the workspace because the inviter and all other workspace members are offline. Note that if the invitee accepts the invitation at a time when the inviter has gone offline, Groove will attempt to download the workspace from another member who is currently online, giving preference to members who are online but idle.
Inviting "Invitee": Invitation Accepted: Sending workspace, % complete...	The invitee has accepted the invitation and the workspace is now being sent.
Inviting "Invitee": Workspace sent, waiting for delivery...	The workspace has left the inviter's computer, though the invitee is still receiving it.
Inviting "Invitee": workspace delivered!	The workspace is successfully delivered to the invitee. Note: If the invitee goes offline before receiving the entire workspace, the workspace gets sent to the relay service. The next time the invitee goes online, the workspace is routed from the relay service to his or her computer.

Requiring acceptance confirmation

Requiring acceptance confirmation is useful for security purposes. It gives you a chance to verify each recipient's identity before you send the workspace. If you check this option, then when the message recipient(s) accept your invitation, Groove displays an alert that prompts you to confirm the invitation.

In the Confirm Acceptance dialog box, do any of the following activities and then click Confirm:

• Click From to open the recipient's contact to verify their identity before sending the workspace.
• Include a message to send when you either confirm or deny the acceptance.

Copying an invitation to the Clipboard

Groove includes standard features for sending workspace invitations as e-mail messages via a Microsoft Outlook client. If you do not use a Microsoft Outlook client for your e-mail, then Groove invitations with e-mail addresses cannot use automated features. If you receive a failure message after attempting to send an invitation to an e-mail address, you can still send the invitation by copying the invitation to the clipboard, and then pasting it into the e-mail client or messaging system of your choice.

1.     Without closing the Groove invitation, select File-Copy Invitation to Clipboard...

2.     Select the invitation settings you want and click OK.

3.     Cancel the Groove invitation.

4.     Open your e-mail or messaging client.

5.     Paste the copied invitation into a new message.

The pasted message includes the standard boilerplate text sent to recipients that includes information on downloading Groove, as well as link for accepting the invitation.

 

 

Threewill have launched a very slick command line tool for Groove that allows you to back up all or any specified workspace to another location

 

Check it out! Also our old friends at Hommes et Process have a competition running for their customers at http://www.trophy-groove-collaboration.com/?lng=2

 

OK moving house at the moment so gotta go!

 

Have you ever opened a Groove Workspace and seen a warning box that tells you there is a name conflict?  Here's what to do..

 

Resolving name conflicts

When two or more contacts have identical display names, their names display in red in contact lists, workspace member lists, and on their contact information cards. Groove considers display names identical if two (or more) names match exactly after removing leading, trailing, and multiple embedded spaces and converting the name to lowercase text.

For example, "Ann  Beebe" and "Ann Beebe" will result in a name conflict. However, "Ann Beebe" and "AnnBeebe" will not result in a name conflict.

It's important to distinguish between contact names so you don't accidentally start Groove activities with the wrong contact. To do so, you can create an alias name for any of the conflicting contact names.

Additionally, in some rare cases, a name conflict may result from having obsolete contacts stored with your account. For example, perhaps a contact has activated a new Groove account, and has abandoned all activities in the previous one, but used the same display name for both. In this case, you can also hide the contact as described below so that it no longer displays in any of your contact lists.

To resolve a name conflict, do the following:

1. Right-click a name showing a conflict, and select Resolve Name Conflict.

2. Do any of the following:

• Click View vCard... to see details for the selected contact. This might help you distinguish between contacts of the same name.

• Click Alias Contact... to open the Alias dialog box where you can enter a unique display name for the contact.

• Click Verify Identity... to go through the steps of verifying a contact's identity.

3. Click Done.

 

No travel this week but as usual a hot topic has emerged - it's funny that as Groove usage becomes more widespread people start to ask the same questions!  But hey!  That's a good thing.  as promised in the title...........

 

About Groove accounts and identities

To use Groove, you must have an account and at least one identity in your account.

About Groove accounts

A Groove account is a file stored on your computer that contains the following types of information:

• Your Groove identity or identities, and the cryptographic "private keys" that define them.
• Other cryptographic information, such as a "master key" for protecting your workspaces.
• The devices on which you run Groove.
• References to the workspaces in which you are a member.
• Information about the contacts you communicate with.

You take measures to secure access to your account either by setting a log-in password or via a certificate stored on a smartcard. When you log in to Groove, your password or certificate decrypts your account file so that you can access the information in it and thereby assume your Groove identities.

Functionally, a Groove account works much like a Groove workspace, in the sense that you can "share" the same account (and access to the workspaces stored with the account) across multiple computers.

About Groove identities

A Groove identity is the "electronic presence" by which other Groove users recognize and interact with you. An identity can be associated with only one Groove account; it cannot be added to other accounts. However, as noted in the previous section, you can add the same Groove account to other computers.

Unless you're restricted by policies set by your Groove administrator in a workplace or organization, you can create multiple identities in your account. This allows you to interact with people using different personas. For example, you might be "Jane Green" when using Groove for business activities, but something more familiar such as  "JaneG" when using Groove with friends and family. Additional display names can be whatever you choose, although it is more useful to choose names that make sense in each context.

Each identity you create is associated with a Contact file that provides identifying information about the identity. You may supply whatever information you wish in your Contact file (at a minimum, each identity must have a name and a valid e-mail address). Thus, different Groove users may learn different information about you depending on which identity they see associated with you. For example, you might provide only a business address for the identity you use for business activities, but provide your home address for the identity you use with friends and family.

Default identity

Every account has a default identity. When you create your Groove account, your initial identity (your account name) is your default identity. 

If you create one or more new identities, you can set any of these identities as your new default identity. Otherwise, your default identity is the identity that Groove created when you created your Groove account. Your default identity is pre-selected when you create new messages or invitations to a workspace.

1. Select Options-Preferences, and click the Identities tab.

2. Select the identity you want to set as the default identity from the Identities drop-down menu.

3. Click Set as Default.

 

 

I was packing to go to Milan tomorrow and the phone rang - A Microsoft partner, who is rolling out a large deployment of Groove for an Enterprise customer, was calling to see i I had any "Best Practices" in using Groove that I could share.  I did so I will now share them with you:

 

Groove WorkSpaces are a tremendously powerful tool for supporting collaboration across domains and businesses, but we should be conscious the fact that the tool is as good as it's users and we need to add some "house rules" to make it work effectively.  Here are some things to consider:

 

1.  All members can read everything - if you don't want someone to see something; don't invite them in.

 

2.  IRM will prevent unauthorised access to documents in Groove - so if you have a connection to the IRM issuing AD domain you can use the document as your rights permit.

 

3. Be careful to whom you allow "invite" permissions - If you don't personally know them - think about it!

 

4. Groove is a great security and transport container but its version control is not sophisticated.  Make your own folders and copy docs in there for editing, switch on version tracking in Word for example and when you are ready the space manager can merge versions using Word.

 

5.  Talk to each other - phone, email, IM and Groove messages are great ways to agree who should be doing what - it's more human and very democratic to discuss how revisions should be made.

 

6. If you don't want a doc to synch put it in a new folder and turn off "synchronisation" RH click the folder and click properties tab, click the "Synchronisation" tab and set to manual.  When you’re ready to share switch it back to automatic.

 

7.  Try and invite your membership in before adding too much content – this makes the joining process quicker for the members.  Then add your content a little at a time.  Groove has excellent compression algorithms which work best on smaller chunks.  As Groove is going to attempt to serialise the data into 1MB chunks anyway you may as well help the process.

 

8. As the workspace manager you It’s your “private club” so why not use the NotePad Tool to create a “Welcome” or “About” page where you can outline the do’s and don’ts, working practices and maybe some useful links.  This is a good way to induct new members into the workspace.

 

9. Remember F7 checks spelling!  Make yourself look good!

 

10. Pressing the “shift” twice in quick succession invokes the Send Groove Message dialogue, even if Groove is running in the background.

 

If you figure out some more "best practices" share them with us!

 

Happy Grooving!