I recently reviewed the v3.0 release of Groove, very favorably (see Groove 3.0: A Tool For Our Times). In a recent interview by Thomas Claburn, Ray Ozzie of Groove Networks makes a number of interesting comments about Groove's 3.0, rich clients in general and other stuff, including Skype, of all things (I wonder if he is an investor, or just loves all things peer-to-peer).

Thomas Claburn

[from InformationWeek]

InformationWeek: Have we moved beyond the desktop metaphor to a shared desktop?

Ozzie: I guess what I would say, at a very high level, is I'm a very big believer in the rich desktop. We started many years ago with a belief in mainframes and decentralization of systems. Then we went through a PC era where end users were extremely pleased with the empowerment they got by having software on their desktops.

Then in the Web era, the pendulum swung back again to centralized control and centralized app deployment. And that was very good for many reasons. Particularly in enterprises, you get economies of scale by doing things in a centralized manner.

But I think the pendulum has swung back, or at least into the middle, where people are realizing that decentralization, in a world of ubiquitous networks, in a world of highly mobile individuals, this concept of decentralized systems and decentralization is of increasing relevance. And it's of relevance in our case to communications and collaboration between people. In the telecom world, I don't know if you've every heard of Skype, but that's an example of how decentralization and decentralized architectures are impacting telephony. Ubiquitous networks and rich clients can be very, very, very valuable.