(2003-09-02) Microsoft Collaboration

David Coursey on the positioning of MsOffice as Collaboration Ware. For example, using Office 2003 apps in conjuction with Windows SharePoint Services allows you to create shared workspaces - small Web sites where you can collaborate on individual documents and projects. Users can share the document, see and be notified of edits, assign tasks, and link to other documents and other resources. This can be quite powerful if a company and its users get behind the technology. But to use it effectively you'll need both the 2003-series apps and the servers... It also provides some justification for the changes Microsoft has made to its customer purchase agreements. Many customers have complained - with reason - that Microsoft has been trying to force them (successfully in many cases) to buy software they otherwise wouldn't purchase. But the 2003 apps and servers really do "need" one another, and I expect this dependency to increase over time... But Redmond takes the Linux threat seriously enough that a new, lower-priced server suite for small businesses will be released later this year. The $599 entry price for the software - which includes MsExchange, SharePoint, and Web server capabilities, as well as file and print sharing - seems quite attractive.

Paul Everitt (of Zope) sees this as an opportunity, but seems to feel that integration with MsWord is a key requirement that Open Source folks won't get over. This seems problematic, given (a) once you think about writing for online rather than long print documents, you want to run away from the weight and closed-ness of MsWord, and (b) if you chase MsWord integration, you keep getting bit by Microsoft's ever-changing Binary File formats. Can you say... Wiki?

Update: Joe Brockmeier counters that this is either going to be the program that achieves near-complete Lock-In for Microsoft, or finally wakes people up.