At Ultralab, both UK and NZ, there is a heavy reliance on a groupware tool called FirstClass, both for online forums and for email. I just discovered the iCal thing, about invitees, but it won’t work seamlessly because of how FirstClass handles attachments.

I really don’t like FirstClass…. and here’s why.

• You can’t read your email offline. Or if you can nobody knows how to do it, so they don’t. I am often in a situation, like a train or a plane, where I find it useful to compose a mail to someone, or to re-read a message received. With FirstClass, if you aren’t online your mail isn’t there.
• First Class doesn’t do a good job of displaying inline images. This means they become “attachments” and this in turn means that you double-click them and they end up in a mystery folder somewhere.
• Unlike an intranet, a message is a distinct thing, a unit in itself. This means that each message loses it’s context. You have no idea what is “related” to piece of information.
• Links are so so so important.
• The web is a more pliable medium than any bespoke system. HTML rocks.
• In FirstClass the new stuff doesn’t come to you, it hides in folders with little red flags.
• You can’t scan read a conference, you have to go through every sodding message.
• Apple’s Email client has Nice Big Buttons, with words on them.
• Apple’s Email client also has filtering, so that I don’t HAVE to move mail into folders. (Automatic archiving? How hard would that be?
• Apple’s Email client has Junk Mail filters, that work (not perfectly, but it’s a start)
• Apple’s Email client integrates via iSync with iCal and Apples Address Book. Which means I have dates and contacts on my iPod AND my nokia phone.

And finally…