Windows Vista Collaboration

Read the whole article over on : InformationWeek

It’s a nice new way of looking at ad-hoc collaboration when there’s no corporate server / service around; it beats the memory stick being past around 🙂

… Windows Vista, which just formally entered its beta 2 cycle, offers a whole host of new networking features, notably significantly better security, better deployment tools, superior mobility, built-in support for IPv6, and much-improved desktop management and troubleshooting help.

But lost in all the buzz about these new features are some excellent new collaboration tools — although it appears that Microsoft has decided that when it comes to collaboration, Windows will be an island rather than a bridge.

Taken by itself, Windows Collaboration (also to be called Windows Meeting Space) Vista’s collaboration tool, should prove to be quite useful for those who want to use live collaboration and virtual meetings. It allows for collaboration across a network, and via ad hoc peer-to-peer Wi-Fi networking when no network is present.

Across a network, meetings can be set up several different ways. An email invitation can be sent out; when the recipient accepts the invitation, he is sent into Windows Collaboration. The owner of the meeting posts a file or presentation or launches an application, copies of which are copied to the PCs of each meeting participant. He can give the presentation by himself, or turn over the presentation to someone else, who can then add, delete or edit information, which in turn is shared with everyone else in the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, a final document is saved to the PC or everyone in the meeting. …