Figuring out Google Wave

by John on October 18, 2009

I find myself in that odd position again, one foot in a world that hasn’t heard a thing about Wave “…you mean gmail??”, and a social media/tech world on fire about this thing.  So this is for the first camp.

You should learn about this thing.  Oh, sure, it has many detractors, but the core intent behind it is revolutionary; what would happen if we reinvented email, to incorporate the new technologies we have today?  What would email+IM+shared documents+wikis look like?

If your response is “…huh?” check out this brilliant little explanation:

Ohhhhh, right.  Good, now you get it.  Group conversations that actually work. A collaborative working environment, in your inbox.

But as the man says, this is only 3.5%.  You can also drag “robots” into the conversation, who sit on the sidelines and edit the conversation when needed.  Like translation – you type in English, and it translates your text (live) into another language.  As you write it. And it translates the other language back.  As they type.  In real time.  Or robots that insert maps whenever an address is typed into a wave…or inserts Twitter handles automatically, or shortens any links to bit.ly micro-urls, or insert wikipedia entries… and it’s only just started.

Oh, but there’s more.  In addition to robots who act on their own, you can add gadgets - include a poll for the group that updates real-time; add in video-conferencing so you all can talk to each other while you’re working on a document together; etc.  If you have 8 minutes, the team who developed Wave made this video:

Whew! Starting to see how you could use this in your work?  Me too.  Last week, I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to try out the service (along with 100,000 of my closest friends), and I’ve been trying to figure out how to make all of that promised magic come to life on my screen.  And it hasn’t been easy…like most “beta projects” where a group is given a preview in return for helping the developers find the bugs before they release it into the world, Google Wave is still pretty raw.

For example, it’s slow now.  S L O W … (Then again, Google is ramping up with probably a million users all of a sudden, and their servers are already providing search for the whole world.)  And they haven’t figured out the Inbox – basically, if you ever look at any wave, it’s suddenly in your inbox, and if it’s a “public wave” (open to the public) anytime anyone in the wave-osphere (ocean?) adds a comment, it turns bold as “unread” – sheesh!  When new contacts add me, or send me a wave, they disappear under the load of all these other inbox-cloggers.   You can’t favorite or mark a wave yet, which is key now with the meta-inbox, and down the road for prioritization.

It’s also a hyper mash of humanity, from all over the world, figuring it out right now, in your inbox, commenting on each other’s ideas, teaching others what they just figured out, conversing with total strangers, stumbling through etiquette blunders because people are making up the rules as we go, etc.  In a word, it’s chaos.  And to many of us, it’s an absolute blast!

If you want to be part of the beta testing group, go here to sign up for the next round of invites.  For those just getting started, here’s my list of helpful articles on how to use this thing.  I’ll edit it and add more as I discover more, so stay tuned, or just hit my Delicious bookmarks on Wave for the latest)

Getting Started

Digging Deeper

Good Reasons to Use It

Other Blogs on Wave

Want to listen to people who really know what they’re talking about?  Try these:

Twitter Resources

Ok, that’s more than enough.  If you’ve tried it, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.  If you haven’t tried it, feel free to speculate.  Wanna wave?  Try me at john.eich@googlewave.com!

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  • http://www.rachatdecredit.net rachat de credit

    You can still log in, edit and export your waves, and wave.google.com will remain in service until there is another way to access your data. …

  • http://www.adhost.dk/sogemaskineoptimering.shtml søgemaskineoptimering

    You can still log in, edit and export your waves, and wave.google.com will remain in service until there is another way to access your data. ..

  • http://www.carloslorenzo.net Carlos Lorenzo

    I have received an invitation to Google Wave preview today. I suppose this is will get better in the future. Coming from Google it will work in the end. I checked the video and I have to say the idea is great. Not for the isolated kind of guy but perfect to share, to plan, to post mutual stuff like photos, to work and chat in real time. I would say it still needs some final touch, people. By the way, John, I noticed that your wonderful site looks a lot like my modest one. It must be the thesis template. I think I'll come here often for inspiration and learning. Thanks!

  • http://www.carloslorenzo.net Carlos Lorenzo

    I have received an invitation to Google Wave preview today. I suppose this is will get better in the future. Coming from Google it will work in the end. I checked the video and I have to say the idea is great. Not for the isolated kind of guy but perfect to share, to plan, to post mutual stuff like photos, to work and chat in real time. I would say it still needs some final touch, people. By the way, John, I noticed that your wonderful site looks a lot like my modest one. It must be the thesis template. I think I'll come here often for inspiration and learning. Thanks!

  • http://offlineblog.net/ dinu

    cool list :) thanks for the link back too :)

  • http://www.worh.org/ruraltech/ John Eich

    @deanw – glad you liked post, and I hope you score that invite soon; sadly I've handed out my allotment. You sound like a great source for feedback and promotion for the product, so Google would be well served by sending you one!

    @Joshanderson – thanks for the tip on another resource for collaborative virtual workspaces.

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  • Joshanderson

    I want to suggest you try http://www.showdocument.com – its an alternative tool that allows document sharing and web meeting in real-time. all the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc. It is free and requires no installation.

    Josh

  • deanw

    Thanks for your informative post!
    If you happen to have a spare Wave invitation available (to send me), I'd be very interested in testing out the service and waving with you. I'm a technical writer and patent agent, and am interested in what this newest google technology can do…particularly anything related to Google Voice….