Green Array – Collaborative Online Project Management

reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Are you ready for next-gen computing? Can you trust being “always on” yet? Are you ready to be on the bleeding edge of technology to collaborate with your worldwide peers? Are you willing to use software that is basically client-server with the server way out of your hands?

Even though I was “down” more than 3 days with our Cable network this past month, I was able to learn more about this piece of collaborative software from the folks that put it together, by spending a lot of time on the phone with them even as the network presentation they were giving me died on my end within 2 minutes of the start of the dog & pony show.  We are talking worst-case scenario Murphy’s Law.

Everything that could go wrong did, but the back up  (land-line phone communications) worked beautifully.

That said, I can truthfully say, my current situation is not ready for 24/7 always-on around-the-world collaboration just yet. But if my system were fiberized instead of coaxed and I had a world-wide development team, I’d go for $20 USD per month per seat to make this work, wouldn’t you?

See, what happens is each time I log in, the system goes out and checks for the latest updates from Green Array, loads those and gets me to re-login after the changes have occurred. Makes you wonder what the 19 MB of local client for Mac OS X is there for, doesn’t it? But it works nice. No CDs to ship, the latest updates are essentially auto-installed and we are ready-to-get-to-work.

The intent is that with a webified collaborative tool, it really doesn’t matter what platform is used – and this is the direction and flow software is going – as long as the backbone works and we can trust it, the network, our equipment and ourselves enough to do the job.

That said, I messed with this product for a little while and realized the 2-minute demo helped a lot in getting me to understand some of the mechanics, but not all. In the spirit of intuitiveness, Green Array has done a fair job, but I need to get a hold of some documentation, some sample templates and a hands-on walkthrough and over-the-shoulder guide to help me through the basics. After that I’m good to go!

During the same review period, I was swapping online access between computers, because the router I had been using failed and you will see I reviewed two and sent one back to the manufacturer during the same time I was kicking the tires on this online app. See, that is another thing.  Green Array doesn’t work yet in stand-alone mode at all. You have to be connected to the Internet to run this app. No safety ‘Net, no collaborative effort. So if you are a road-warrior, and you are in-between Internet connections (like on a plane between continents), forget it for now.

The miracle and the magic of Internet connectivity still isn’t as good as the reliability of an electric light switch and the local power company (in statistical-speak all things being equal). See, I also swapped computers in midstream as well. My older iMac G5 went to Europe – and back – without me - as a sale fell through and I brought it back online as my main system - again. If you don’t have a reliable computer system, that also can create havoc with this app. However, Green Array has made it so that folks who do Macs, Linux and Windows can work together in relative harmony – or at least swap information using this $20 USD–per-month app. Assuming you also trust Green Array to guard your project information.

Safety and Security issues; yes, Green Array has password-protected your app and as admin, you can invite others in, but who is watching over Green Array and really protecting your data? If your project is high-profile and for-your-eyes-only, should you work in an environment that may perhaps, not be as trust-worthy as you first assumed? I personally believe in “trust, but verify” and I have personally witnessed some bad actors recently online – the kind that make pirates wince.

Just askin’ fellas, just askin’…and hopin’ the cable connection works, the power stays on, and…

 Read the MacsimumNews article linked above for more.