"Internet Corner" Articles
Google Wave (SGA Newsletter, Volume 41, Issue 4, Winter 2009)
Note: Usually this column contains information on one subject available in a wide variety of places, so that the reader can compare and contrast the subject in question. However, Google Wave is such a singular application that I have not been able to find another one like it at this time. I welcome any notice of applications that I have missed that work in a similar way.Google Wave, developed by the same team who created Google Maps, is an online tool that allows the user to work, communicate, and collaborate in real-time. The driving force behind its conception was that the Google team wanted to rethink the way people work today. Email was created 40 years ago, and still has some characteristics of physical letters. You write a note, send it, and you receive one in return. You can forward the note on to others, but as anyone who has been the recipient of a multi-forwarded email can attest, it is often difficult to decipher the contents.
What if email was invented today? What would it look like? Google thinks it would look like Google Wave. First demonstrated at the Google I/O Conference on May 27, 2009, the team described a centralized workspace where people can communicate via instant chat, videos, photographs, videos, and maps (among other things). Instead of a one-to-one conversation, this can be a many-to-many conversation. It was launched to about 100,000 users on September 30, 2009, and is still in preview mode. The developers like to say that a “wave” is “equal parts conversation and document.”
Here are some suggested uses of Google Wave:
- Meeting notes: You can prepare a meeting agenda together, share note-taking, and record decisions so everyone knows exactly what is going on. Team members can follow the minutes in real time or use the Playback feature to view the history. Even after the meeting is over, team members can use the same wave to continue the conversation.
- Event organizer: You can keep a single copy of ideas, suggested itineraries, menus, and RSVPs, rather than using many different tools. You can also use gadgets to add weather, maps, and more to the event.
- Group reports and writing projects: Groups can work in real time to draft content, discuss and solicit feedback all in one place rather than sending out email attachments and creating multiple copies that get out of sync.
- Brainstorming: You can bring in lots of people to a wave to make the ideas multiply, and users can also add videos, images, URLs, and even link to other waves.
- Photo sharing: You can drag and drop photos from your desktop into a wave to share with others. Everyone on the wave can also add their photos, and anyone can add titles or descriptions of the photographs. This is a great way to produce a group photo album.
Part of Google Wave's appeal is that it was intentionally created using open-source software, encouraging development of APIs (application programming interfaces), and allowing other companies to create Wave workspaces on their own. Eventually, it is hoped that “waves” will become a communication standard which will replace emails. Google will then be one of many providers of a wave workspace.
Since the May demo, developers have been hard at work creating robots and gadgets to be used within Google Wave. Robots are automated participants that are written on the server side, and help perform tasks on behalf of the users, including syncing data with other services. Here are a few bots are currently available (and as of press time there are many, many more):
- Linky: After adding the bot to a wave, the bot will monitor all blip edits and recognize the link syntax as you type. The recognized portions of the blip will get highlighted blue if the link is considered valid, red if it is considered invalid, and grey is the link function is not recognized.
- Napkin: If you like to take notes or doodle on the back of a napkin, then you will feel right at home once you have this robot installed in Google Wave.
- Voicy: This is a voice recording/sharing system, and is a new way to share thoughts and greetings in Google Wave.
These robots worked in the May 2009 demo and in the Developer Preview sandbox version, but do not seem to be available on the live preview site as of yet.
- Tweety: This bot allows you to update your status on Twitter from within Google Wave.
- Bloggy: This bot allows the user to instantly upload content to a Blogger blog with a click of the mouse. There is also a new plugin called “wavr” that will allow you to embed a wave to a blog in Wordpress. However, if you do not have a Google Wave account you still cannot see the post.
- Rosy: This bot will instantly translate from one language to another. You can chat in your native language and Rosy will instantly translate what you are writing, or, what the other person is writing in real time (up to forty languages). Another developer created “Aunt Rosie” in October, but apparently the bot still has some bugs.
Gadgets are client-side programs that make it easy to write full applications inside of Google Wave.
- AccuWeather: The Google Wave gadget from AccuWeather.com predicts the weather forecast for any place in the world in seconds.
- Google Mappy: This gadget allows users to collaborate on a map of placemarks, paths, and shapes with other participants.
- Conference Calls: Ribbit brings telephone conference calls to Google Wave.
- Events: The “Yes/No/Maybe” gadget is useful for gauging interest of anyone on a wave. Users can select yes, no, maybe, and provide custom responses. This is great for events or polls.
- Games: Gadgets have been created for chess, sudoku, hangman, and even for rolling RPG dice.
Listed below are some
links to fully demonstrate Google Wave “in action.” Watching the
80 minutes video is a time-investment, but to gain a better sense of
the potential of the tool, it is well worth it. There are many more
links than these, but these are a good place to start. In addition,
if you would like an invitation to get on the preview site, see the
very last link in the list. Happy waving!
Dr. Wave Introduction
Video
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/drwave.html
Google Wave Overview (80 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pgxLaDdQw
Google I/O Conference
Demo (80 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ
Google Wave Developer
Blog (last update before press time was December 16, 2009)
http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/
Request a Google Wave
Invitation
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/