One of the main challenges I encounter every time I participate in launching a new venture is striving to create a culture that is open and collaborative, as well as informal and fun to be a part of, yet not obsessed with soft consensus to the point of drowning in details.

On one hand you don't want to stymie discussion and lead people to self-censor because they perceive you as a fascist boss or project manager. On the other hand some people don't know when it's time to table a discussion, agree to disagree, or even accept they won't win the argument. You do want to listen and gather the best from everyone but a small business can't be dragged in UN-like discussions either. Irresolution and the lack of a feeling of urgency are a big business syndrom smaller companies can't afford.

Toucan Navigate is:

"the Geographic Information System (GIS) for users of Groove Workspace, the desktop collaboration software. [...] Toucan Navigate delivers maps and core GIS functionality to members of Groove shared spaces including co-browsing or the ability to have entire teams seeing the same map concurrently regardless of their physical location [and] co-editing of map features and attributes."

Tim Bray lists a selection of email clients for you in case you want to be teleported seven years ago (cool, I'll long then short the bubble and will become a gazillionaire!), when you needed separate applications to handle tasks that are obviously related to each other. Outlook is a market leader because it's leaps and bounds more usable and feature-rich than the Notes client, its only real competitor. I wonder how software such as Eudora stacks up to manage contacts, tasks, surveys, custom forms, or shared calendaring. And how do you integrate RSS, spam filtering, or instant messaging? (Has anyone ever heard of a Eudora ISV?) How do you custom-code mini-portals, integrate workflow, or build reporting applications on top of all that collaborative data?