Making Headlines

In search of a remedy for its collaboration wares, Novell recently acquired SiteScape, a developer of open source collaboration tools.

Last year, the two began a partnership that resulted in Novell Teaming + Conferencing, based on SiteScape's ICEcore collaboration tools.

The Web-based team workspace and real-tine conferencing platform includes Web 2.0 and social networking technologies.

According to the New York Times, Novell's current GroupWise collaboration platform had been missing many real-time and Web 2.0 technologies that will define the next wave of collaboration.

Novell will continue offering Teaming + Conferencing, but the company now has the freedom to extend the technology and potentially OEM its capabilities.

Reports say Novell's focus will be on ICEcore (Integrated Collaboration Environment), which includes an open source project component.

Novell says it will continue to support other SiteScape tools at least through 2010, including Forum ZX and ST.

These allow for threaded blogs, discussion, wiki, work flow, and document sharing among other tools; SiteScape Zon - integrated into ZX and provides voice and Web conferencing - and Web Work Zone.

Novell sought a way to provide such tools in order to compete and prevent its customers from migrating away from its platform.

SiteScape's environment for work groups is likened in both strategy and design to Microsoft's SharePoint and IBM Lotus Quickr.