Google Wave

[xDDunce]

hiya all,

Just wondering if anyone has seen Google Wave? My friend gave me a link to an article about it, but it didn't quite give the same "WOW" factor as the video did.

They demoed it at Google I/O this week (the video is a must see!), and it looks to be the next step forward in how we communicate using computers. Everything you need to know about it is in the link above. I was just wondering what you guys thought of it, and what you think it could mean for all the communication programs we use today(Instant Messaging, E-Mail, blogging, general on-line communities etc.)?

I'm eagerly awaiting the release date, and I think it could spell the end for standard email clients over the next few years. It will definitely improve project management and communicating design ideas between team members, but COULD it replace Instant Messaging programs and the like? Maybe, but probably not (you will see why in the video - speed isn't always a good thing).

Cheers,
James.

P.S. I don't work for Google, I'm just an interested member of the public

[NickJohnson]

It seems just like a modified instant messaging client that works kind of like a revision control system over a Myspace wall. Looks like it combines the worst parts of IM (lots of impulsive idiots) and Google Docs (confusing rapid-fire revision control). I forsee lots of unintelligible, angry chaos.

[whowhatwhere]

It seems just like a modified instant messaging client that works kind of like a revision control system over a Myspace wall. Looks like it combines the worst parts of IM (lots of impulsive idiots) and Google Docs (confusing rapid-fire revision control). I forsee lots of unintelligible, angry chaos.

Bingo.

[xDDunce]

true, but that will only cause the support team several years of nuisance. as long as you're knowledgeable of how to use it, it could be brilliant. and although it uses can use twitter, it can also user blogger. I can't think of ANY self-hosted blogs that morons have made, so it will only be the knowledgeable using it for that specific function.

sure, when they introduce myspace, bebo and facebook gadgets it WILL go downhill. but looking at it's functionality from a "respectable" user's point of view, it could be very useful for "on-the-go" blogging, and what not, as well as Project Management communication. ever tried arranging an event through email? (I've found) roughly 50 emails to decide what to do, where to go, how etc. But that can be squeezed down to about 15. 1 documenting all decided details, a poll, and a few comments. in concept, it seems alot better to use. Just waiting to see if it's worth using.

Cheers,
James.

[NickJohnson]

I guess there has been a surprisingly good trend of results from simply making communication smaller (i.e. in smaller messages) and faster. I mean, email -> instant messaging -> twitter seems to have been a successful concept, so maybe this will be the equivalent for blogging. (or, it could be more on the track of wiki -> google doc -> google wave) I'll probably never use it anyway though.

And if you have an event that is truly important enough for 50+ people to get involved, you might as well set up a forum. Then you can actually have concurrent conversations in a reasonable medium. As far as I can see from Google's description, it's more like a very small version of Google Docs if anything. Have you ever tried to organize even three people simply via Docs? I've found it impossible.

[JackScott]

At my University there's a group of students who organise all their events through a shared Google Docs spreadsheet (about 25 people). They have a line for each person, and then they vote on where/when/what options. So I guess it does work, as long as everybody sticks to a given piece of the document and doesn't stray from it.

I haven't watched the entire Google Wave video, but I'll make this comment: I don't want it to succeed, but it probably will. I dislike Google's monopoly on web products (to the point of running my own email server, not trusting anybody else's), and although this will be open source, I only really see Google taking it up strongly. It's basically another Facebook, just the thing the world doesn't need.

[Owen]

I imagine very quickly we will see open source wave servers. It helps that it's built on the standard XMPP.

What I want to know is if they plan on integrating this with the Jabber IM platform at all (Which they already have in Google Talk form)

[Cognition]

I don't really see the progression to smaller and smaller messages as being a good thing personally. There's a lot of advantages in the necessity of having to structure and organize your thoughts. Raw information maybe transmitted faster, but signal quality tends to go way down with each step.

Penny Arcade summed it up pretty accurately here:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/

Back on topic though, I don't know that Google Wave strikes me as much more useful then existing web applications like CoverItLive. Seems a bit overhyped to me.

[NickJohnson]

I didn't say that progression was a *good* thing, just that it seemed to happen inevitably. Small and rapid, regardless of the costs, seems to strike a chord in the majority of the population.

[Cognition]

I agree with you completely Nick, sorry I wasn't trying to imply that you said that it was a great thing. More or less voicing my frustration at the current trend to no one in particular.

[AndrewAPrice]

At my University there's a group of students who organise all their events through a shared Google Docs spreadsheet (about 25 people). They have a line for each person, and then they vote on where/when/what options. So I guess it does work, as long as everybody sticks to a given piece of the document and doesn't stray from it.

It works when you trust the other people. For example, I wouldn't give write permission to everyone in my project if I was still in high school (all it takes is for one clown to terrorize it). If you trust the people you're working with then it's great for writing technical documents when multiple people can work on multiple chapters in the same file at the same time. You can even watch it update sentence/paragraph at a time as it flushes.