Unusual Uses for Google Wave
Google Wave continues to enthrall and confuse at the same time. This is a whole new line of communication and is fundamentally much more than just a revision of the basic e-mail concept, as some have said. E-mail as we know it is basically a static concept – distributing notifications back and forth, where they reside in a “box” as a dead object until somebody responds by creating a similar static object, which in turn is distributed for further action. A wave is more like a collaboration, which can be in real time, between interested parties. The concept can be discussed, elaborated, enlarged and supported and made available for input from any number of interested parties. While we are only just getting used to the concept of social communications through the likes of Twitter and Facebook, a wave is likely to represent a far more interactive and real-time collaboration between participants. For many people, it’s concept is still somewhat alien and in truth we have nothing to compare it to as yet.
Google Wave is still in the process of development, but a number of really cool uses have emerged to support its potential. While the heading of this blog refers to “unusual uses,” the fact is that every use of this emerging medium is innovative and while some are still trying to decipher how to really use a wave for best effect, others seem to have hit on some productive reasons.
Topically, the group responsible for distributing H1N1 vaccine for the dreaded swine flu realized that they were allocating a considerable amount of time and wasted resources to meetings and other disjointed two-way conversations. They relied heavily on e-mails, instant messages and so on between distribution points, administrators, scientists and overseers. By setting up a wave, they would all be able to work simultaneously on an issue, cutting through all those duplications and the needless checking of documentation, allowing the message to get out to the public and other interested parties very much faster.
At a tech savvy conference called Ecomm, wave accounts were doled out to attendees who could then collaborate in real-time and interact with content as it was being presented. Fundamentally, a wave would first be created by an audience member and then others could edit its content on the fly. This resulted in a far more detailed and richer transcript, enabling fresh thoughts and points of view to be recorded while they were most appropriate. This type of approach will undoubtedly result in a much more accurate and productive rendition of an interactive conference.
In an airport, so much information needs to be shared between so many people and can be the subject of critical safety awareness. An air traffic control wave could incorporate real-time weather updates, particular ground delays or situations, construction problems or data from other parts of the country affecting arrivals. Generally, being able to keep everyone abreast of situations as they arise (or even before) can only help to achieve efficiencies within such a time critical environment.
Potential applications for waves are almost limitless, as soon as the public in general becomes more comfortable with the actual concept. Adoption is likely to take some time, though.
Do you currently “wave” at anybody?
Matthew Toren
Thanks for the post Matthew,
Google Wave sounds great, do they have any kind of release date set?
Regards David Pagotto
Surely, waves can be used in numerous useful ways, and Google hit the point upgrading the emails. It will take some time until we build up our contact lists in Gwave so that becomes popular and enough useful to use.
Gwave is still under processing. Although, it has passed the beta testing, but still there is lot to explore by Google development team.
I use GWave with some of my team members and am connected to someone else I work with but we haven’t put it to extensive use just yet. I love the real-time communication but I think it will be a lot more useful once they roll-out new features. For now, it’s not a whole lot diff than using a Google doc to collab since it’s also updated in real-time but I still love the concept and look forward to using it more extensively once it sees new features.
I’ve had the opportunity to get a few different invites to the wave, but may I am just still shying away from it. I guess kind of in the same way that I shied away from Twitter. I’m still looking forward to seeing how it pans out though especial after it comes more out in the open.
Till then,
Jean
You can only create them from scratch and copy-paste them. Remember that Wave isn’t ready for public yet, so many more features will be added before it is finally released.
Sounds interesting although I haven’t tried this feature yet. Good thing that the “wave” that Google talks about here is how to send in easily similar information just like a different kind of flowing conversation. I hope to try this in the future especially when it’s wholly open for the public. Thanks for sharing.
Look forward to the finished product.
Sure, waves can be used in numerous ways and Google hit the points upgrading the emails. It will take some time until we build up our contact lists in Gwave so that becomes popular and enough useful to use.
Google is not standing still, which is why they are the best!
Great post Mathew - I have invites to Google wave but have still not come to grips with it - I aiming to experiment this weekend with it
It will be interesting to see how Google Wave changes how we communicate. To me it sounds like combining a wiki and an e-mail. Since it is so innovative, it may take some time to really catch on.
Gwave is really exciting thing. It is going to revolutionize the communication industry. I am going to use it very soon for my personal as well as official purpose.
I’m very curious as to how wave is going to unfold to the public. I can see it getting popular with business’ but it’ll be interesting to see how much it’s features will be used by the everyday person. One thing I hope doesn’t happen is a flood of google wave advertising programs come up…
I have google wave, but haven’t figured out its best use yet since it is limited to those that are invited still. I have been using Google Groups to collaborate on one project and so far it serves the purpose.
Google Wave or just want to join a Waving community, you can go to my Google Wave forum. Have fun, eventually, waving!