Sounds like a disruption: - worse features than the leading products (Google Wave, Word etc) - simpler, more convenient, cheaper, for a new use The typical t

Sounds like a disruption: - worse features than the leading products (Google Wave, Word etc) - simpler, more convenient, cheaper, for a new use The typical thing to do with such a disruption is to find the customers who value it (typically, enabling them to do something they couldn't do before but want to - "target non-consumption", or "non-consuming contexts"), and make a business out of it (i.e. a low-cost business model). Then, keep improving it til it has all the features of Word etc, but retains its special new qualities... thereby replacing Word. So... who would really need etherpad? What situation would they be in? What do they need to do? It can be helpful to imagine less skilled people than you'd normally think of; or that the nature of the task means they can't afford the time for complex setup; or that they are poor. i.e. something prevents them from using Word. Maybe, a mobile app? And I understand that groupware had a lot of promise, but didn't really take off... maybe find where it did work (in large organizations) and transfer it to small (poorer) organizations.