Google Wave!

Google Wave! Yes, I've put an exclamation point there myself because I think this has the ability to be a game-changer in the future. It could easily be the re-invention of email and collaborative efforts.

Or it could go largely ignored as people get confused. This thing is massive.

I am tending to think we'll see more of the former out of it, and for a few reasons. One is that the Google development team went a long way to keep basic elements of that which we are familiar with already: email, chat windows, blogs, photo and video viewing options. But beyond that, they are building in some serious real world functionality for the business side of life: real-time collaboration and editing of projects and/or documents; historical backup data embedded in the document (ACCOUNTABILITY!); a joyously simple interface with a short initial learning curve; open source code for developers to add on; unlimited possibility.

Now before I go into much ado about "what the hell is he talking about", I'll provide you with a few things. The first is the hour and 20 minute developers launch video. If you have time to watch this and see the demos, I recommend it. BUT - it's developers talking developese at points, and sometimes it drags a bit. Be prepared, bring your crossword.



For those who do not have the time or gumption to sit through that, I'll condense as best I can. Keep in mind, I've seen the examples of this stuff already. So if you have trouble following along at points, I apologize. I'll try to keep it simple.

First off is the Wave itself (also called a Waveform). The Wave lives in your browser, not in your email server. Google is moving us all towards the cloud, slowly but surely. With HTML 5 on the horizon primed to possibly replace add-on brower items like Microsoft Silverlight, Sun's Java and other web-based applications on your computer, Google is anticipating that most life on the PC or MAC will be lived on the web.

The Wave starts much the way any email might start, with one person sending a message to another person. This is your basic Wave. You can leave it at back-and-forth, but that's just email. Waves allow you to add more users, chat and edit the discussion real time, insert comments or relevant documents immediately the text to which they refer with a simple click, and much more. Multiple users can be added quickly to conversations. There are privacy options to block certain content from certain users such as a private conversation or document. There is so much you can add to the basic wave, and keep it all within the window that houses it, right on your browser.

At this point, I would go more into the details, but that's just a lot of wasted reading that's been covered elsewhere. I want to talk applications!

Our broadcast group was sitting around the other day during a meeting trying to figure out how we're going to schedule between our three edit bays for video, audio production needs, and other projects that need to be done such as scheduling photographers for shoots and commercials. It hit me that Google Wave, which could be edited and maintained on the fly, could work for each project as it happened. On top of that, it could also serve as a clearinghouse for the workloads, showing which bays are full, what is being worked on at what time, and what times were still free or unbooked. All of this can easily be made public and shared with users who can be allowed to edit the wave (such as our photogs, editors, etc) and kept in real time.

Other applications include marketing projects (where are certain people on certain aspects, and the group doesn't have to all be encumbered with the gory details based on private reply) and stages can be recorded and isolated to keep projects moving forward and ease delegation. What about sales campaigns? Need a script to be updated? Easy stuff with Google Wave. On top of that you can have live question/answer sessions between bosses and reps which might actually keep people from being put on hold, too. There's a lot going on in this technology, and I'm just skimming the surface of possibilities based on what we see in the video.

In the long run, keep your eyes peeled on this technology, it's going to take off once it hits. The only limit will be in how you apply it. But I do recommend giving it a shot, and trying out some off-the-wall applications. You may find that it makes your business life just that much easier.