In the P2P environment, your PC is open to be accessed by other computers every time you are connected to the Net. That's effectively what happens when you use Napster, and similar to what happens when you run the very popular SETIatHome screensaver - the one that downloads a chunk of data from a network of radio telescopes and scans it for alien messages right in front of your eyes. But now it's the turn of the next-generation P2P product. You can invite friends, family or work colleagues into your 'Groove space', where all of you will have access to the same stuff - whether it is words, pictures, drawings, documents, anything. Groove spaces are updated in real time while you are online, but you can use them offline too, and your space will be automatically synchronised with everyone else's the next time you connect.
Groove is a smart idea because it lets people collaborate on stuff from anywhere.
It is designed to be user-friendly, but underneath the hood, it's technically very powerful. Groove is very much a new idea and the software might take some getting used to. Although it is powerful, remember that it is designed to help people to stay in touch - but all of them also have to have a computer which is connected to the Net, and which as Groove installed on it. While that might be great for a collection of technical whizz-kids, it might not be so easy to organise among your family and friends spread across the globe. That said, if you could get your cousins in New Zealand to use it, staying in touch with them would be a bit easier and more fun.