I had hoped that your post would generate more ideas also. The problem that you're trying to solve is the same one that I need to solve for university workgroups. While wiki's are decent document collaboration tools, workgroups need more than this. They need workgroup collaboration tools (i.e. document libraries, communication tools, task management tools, whiteboards, presentatation tools, etc.). Perhaps the reason that there hasn't been more discussion here is that there aren't that many alternatives that address all of these needs coherently. I would watch what Ray Ozzie does in this space though. I don't think there's anyone else with better credentials in collaboration tools.
You've said that you've used Groove previously, are you aware that Groove has a "Mobile Workspace for Sharepoint" tool. This essentially maps a Groove workspace to a Sharepoint site and maintains synchronization of content between both platforms. This solution would provide a web presence for a Groove workspace and might appease Macintosh users (probably not though). It doesn't provide the rich communication modules available in a Groove workspace though. There are also platforms like communityserver.org that provide integrated blog, forum, photos, and file tools. No doubt, there are other examples of platforms like this. Some probably also provide or can be integrated with wikis, but they don't provide communication tools or any of the data conferencing tools.
I agree that there may be a mashup of simple tools that might provide what is needed in the future. I keep my eye on the IM/VoIP platforms (i.e. any of the messengers or Skype) for extensions that might address workgroup collaboration needs. To me those platforms are the most likely candidates for providing workgroup collaboration tools because they provide the base communications tools (voice and text) that are not available in web-based tools. Verosee (referenced at Verosee - Skype's Groove Killer) is a Groove-like add on to Skype that looks promising. I've tried it though and I don't think it's ready for prime time. Also, more generally, RSS as the web services interface to glue a number of simple tools together to provide a solution is not robust enough in its current state to handle the kinds of synchronization/syndication that workgroup collaboration requires.
Finally, I think that Gene Smith has a point in his Proliferation of Simple Tools post that "...creating simple tools is great, but there's tremendous value in reducing complexity". I'm concerned that having a lot of simple tools will only result in having a lot of simple tools. As he also says: "Sometimes shit is complicated...The tension isn't so much between simplicity and complexity, but between complexity, clarity and relevance." This argues for a Groove like approach that provides modularity, but within an integrated framework that reduces complexity in the tools, if not in the tasks.
You've said that you've used Groove previously, are you aware that Groove has a "Mobile Workspace for Sharepoint" tool. This essentially maps a Groove workspace to a Sharepoint site and maintains synchronization of content between both platforms. This solution would provide a web presence for a Groove workspace and might appease Macintosh users (probably not though). It doesn't provide the rich communication modules available in a Groove workspace though. There are also platforms like communityserver.org that provide integrated blog, forum, photos, and file tools. No doubt, there are other examples of platforms like this. Some probably also provide or can be integrated with wikis, but they don't provide communication tools or any of the data conferencing tools.
I agree that there may be a mashup of simple tools that might provide what is needed in the future. I keep my eye on the IM/VoIP platforms (i.e. any of the messengers or Skype) for extensions that might address workgroup collaboration needs. To me those platforms are the most likely candidates for providing workgroup collaboration tools because they provide the base communications tools (voice and text) that are not available in web-based tools. Verosee (referenced at Verosee - Skype's Groove Killer) is a Groove-like add on to Skype that looks promising. I've tried it though and I don't think it's ready for prime time. Also, more generally, RSS as the web services interface to glue a number of simple tools together to provide a solution is not robust enough in its current state to handle the kinds of synchronization/syndication that workgroup collaboration requires.
Finally, I think that Gene Smith has a point in his Proliferation of Simple Tools post that "...creating simple tools is great, but there's tremendous value in reducing complexity". I'm concerned that having a lot of simple tools will only result in having a lot of simple tools. As he also says: "Sometimes shit is complicated...The tension isn't so much between simplicity and complexity, but between complexity, clarity and relevance." This argues for a Groove like approach that provides modularity, but within an integrated framework that reduces complexity in the tools, if not in the tasks.