Wave Of The Future – Google Wave
Posted by terrepruitt on October 17, 2009
It really just might be the wave of the future. It is a real time communication tool. Right now it is preview mode – maybe what used to be called beta. You actually have to get an invitation from Google in order to have access to the preview.
Oh, don’t be all jealous, I didn’t get an invitation, I don’t actually have access. I can’t give you first hand screen shots or pictures (which you KNOW I love to do). All I can tell you is that I watched two of their videos and I saw it in action. (SOMEONE I know has it.) I didn’t get to play with it, and that is how I really learn, so bear with me when I try to give you a glimpse of the future wave that is about to wash over us . . . .
This is beyond e-mail and beyond chat. It is beyond whatever type of work sharing program that I have ever seen. It is cool . . . .I think . . . I still need to get my hands on it to see for myself, but the IDEA sounds cool. Well, more accurately, it seems very cool for work situations. I can see how this would have really been awesome when I had a corporate job, but I want to see how it works in the non-corporate-every-day-world.
What is it? Well, from what I understand, it is cloud computing*. The information is stored on a server that people (your contacts) have access to. So instead of e-mail that is downloaded to your computer and instead of web based e-mail which has to be sent and retrieved, it is a bit like chat. Real time. Except with this you can put videos, documents, maps, photos, and text in the “wave”. While you are typing your contact can see it. And, unlike, chat it is recorded, like a . . . .I am not sure what to call it because it can contain documents, videos, text, photos, and maps, so it is recorded like a record of the “meeting” that you had.
Because it is more than a conversation, because like I said (it warrants repeating) it can contain documents, videos, text, photos, and map it can’t really just be called a conversation or an e-mail.
So for example let’s say, you open a wave with a contact and you can start chatting. If you need to you can add a document or whatever. Then you realize that you should have included another contact so you add that person. Well, that person missed half the “conversation”, but . . . . (whoa!) he can go back and re-play it. And it will appear on his computer as it happened. He will see the first portion of the wave, all the way through to the last. If he misses something or wants to jump ahead, there is a scrub bar.
So it can be real time communication and collaboration or people can play it when they need to catch up. It is like an e-mail but organized so it actually makes sense. And to properly use it people could add their two cents into it right where they needed to, or add a document or a video or a photo right in the middle where it might actually make sense, and then there wouldn’t be that annoying forgetting to “reply to all” that we all have either done ourselves or been the non/recipient of.
Whew. It does so much and it is difficult to explain. When it was first explained to me, I was not having any of it. Then when I saw it in action I changed my mind. But I still want to try it as a “layman”, I am not corporate so I am not convinced it has its uses for those of use that don’t have jobs and “teams” to collaborate with.
I am way over my self-imposed word limit and I didn’t even get to tell you some of what I learned. Sigh . . . another blog perhaps.
*Cloud computing is the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources as a service over the Internet on a utility basis.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
judy said
Thank you, Terre! I’ve been wondering about the wave. It sounds cool… one more thing for me to get addicted to. Good thing you have to be invited. 😉
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terrepruitt said
It looks pretty cool, but like I said, I need to be able to use it to decide for certain. And I am still wondering about its everyday use. And, yup, one more thing.
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Jill Campana said
WOW. That was waaaaaay too much information for this overloaded brain. Just let me know when I can subscribe, join, enlist, register or whatever it is. I’ll make my decision then…sounds very much like sensory overload to me…but then right now I’m operating on sensory overload…sheesh!!!
Love and thanks for sharing about the Wave…
Jill
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terrepruitt said
I imagine it could be sensory overload if you were on a wave with several people and everyone was typing and adding “stuff” at once, but . . . . I don’t know.
I was talking to Hubby and he suggested an everyday application that might be useful. He mentioned planning something. We sometimes make plans online and the comments post linearly, so I could post something then two other people could post something then you could comment on MY post. Since your comment is on my comment but after two other comments sometimes it gets confusing. But with the wave you could comment directly under my comment so all would be able to see what you were referring to. And if you were “watching” it the wave player would show the comments in posting order so even though your added comment might be down the page you would see that it was added.
Or instead of using e-mail to plan something it could all be in one wave. I have three friends and when we try to plan something using e-mail what happens is two of us always seem to reply at the same time and so our e-mails end up “crossing paths” and then we have two e-mails going because there are two with different information.
Yeah, you have to see it—-I think—to understand. I didn’t get it at all while Hubby was explaining it to me, then I saw it and some vids and it made a bit more sense. I can see how trying to understand it through a post is a bit of a sensory overload! 🙂
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Jill Campana said
Thank you for making me not feel so incompetent!!! You’re a peach. I really will have to see it or something. I’ve had my Skype camera for over a month now and have never used it. It doesn’t work and I’m sure it’s got something to do with my not downloading the software correctly or something. Oh well…
Love to you,
Jill
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terrepruitt said
I have found a few videos that help explain it. I am typing up a new blog now. If I don’t include links to the videos in my blog post, I will send them to you, in case you would like to see for yourself and get a better understanding.
It is much easier to understand when you SEE something. The wave is kind of like Nia . . . . I am not kidding. There is sooooo much to it and so much that it can do, that is it hard to explain and you have to get in there and do it to see what it can do and get the full benefit. So I am not even getting the full benefit of the wave because I have not tried it.
You should never feel incompetent! Really, compare the wave to Nia . . . how were you when you first started Nia? A little like, “Whoa! There’s a lot more to this than I am understanding from just hearing about it. I better take my shoes off and jump in and DO IT!” Well, unfortunately with the wave we can’t jump in just yet!
🙂
Love to you too, Sweetie!
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