Thinking it strange that gamers had better Internet collaboration tools than big businesses, Ozzie set about to change that. Three years, millions of dollars and hundreds of millions of bits of code later, Ozzie's team released an Internet software program a few weeks ago that is designed to help companies foster the kind of team spirit he saw among gamers. Called Groove, the program is a hybrid between Ozzie's Lotus Notes tools for work groups and Napster Inc.'s highly publicized file-sharing system. Analysts consider Groove a new kind of Internet operating system that could spawn a legion of corporate Napster clones. The idea is to let companies create virtual work spaces in which participants share personal data directly from their desktop computers.
Groove pulls together a lot of common Internet tools for use in the corporate culture.
No central Web site or computer is needed for updating data, which is encrypted during transmission and mysteriously synchronized using algorithms so everyone can see changes other group members make. Unlike the local area networks used in most companies, Groove's tools communicate via the Internet and so are readily accessible from anywhere in the world. One company, for instance, is considering tailoring Groove to create private rooms online where financial advisers would analyze portfolios with customers. Manufacturing planners might use it to handle special orders at far-flung assembly plants, which would require creating custom Groove views to integrate with the plants' inventory and production systems. A record label might develop an add-on that lets Bruce Springsteen fans watch free video clips from an archive of his concerts and view other fans' personal photos of Springsteen.