Google Wave, Communicate And Collaborate In Real Time

Google Wave is a new way of internet communication combining the best of e-mail, instant messaging, chats, wikis and social networking. Google Wave is a web-based, centrally hosted service. It works like the traditional email, but instead of sending copies of the email to each recipient’s mailbox to be stored, the email content is located at a central server where it is available for all the participants.

Using other communication methods like email, there are chances of communication breakdown when follow-up emails become long and email copies are sent to different people. Most probably there will be different pieces of information going around in emails. If a new person were added to the email loop, the person would have difficulties in piecing together information from the previous emails. What would you expect from a technology which was invented 40 years ago. Yes, email was invented 40 years ago and are no longer suitable for the extensive communication needs of today!

In Google Wave, the communication thread which takes place is called a Wave. A Wave can function as email, threaded conversation and also instant messaging when participants are online at the same time. When a Wave communication takes place like an email where replies are made by various participants, they are added to that Wave communication in real-time. The participants can modify a Wave communication at any part of it, thus enabling collaborative work. A new participant can join a Wave and playback the interaction which will enable easy understanding of what has been communicated before.

Google Wave enables people to communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Wave is a live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

What do you think Google Wave would be useful for? Here are some ideas:

• Organizing events – Keep a single copy of ideas, suggested itinerary, menu and RSVPs, rather than using many different tools. Use gadgets to add weather, maps and more to the event.
• Group projects – Collaboratively work in real time to draft content, discuss and solicit feedback all in one place rather than sending email attachments and creating multiple copies that get out of sync.
• Photo sharing – Drag and drop photos from your desktop into a wave. Share with others. Use the slideshow viewer. Everyone on the wave can add their photos, too. It is easy to make a group photo album in Google Wave.
• Meeting notes – Prepare a meeting agenda together, share the burden of taking notes and record decisions so you all leave on the same page. Team members can follow the minutes in real time, or review the history using Playback
• Brainstorming – Bring lots of people into a wave to brainstorm – live concurrent editing makes the quantity of ideas grow quickly! It is easy to add rich content like videos, images, URLs or even links to other waves. Discuss and then work together to distill down to the good ideas.
• Interactive games – Add a gadget to a wave to play live interactive games with your friends. See everyone’s moves as they make them in a fast-paced game or take a break and come back later.