Google Wave - Replacing e-mail? Challenges ahead?

From Bits, Bytes and Archives, by mopennock ...

"I’m lucky enough to have received an invitation to Google’s new communications & collaboration tool – Google Wave. Having previously avoided much of the hype, I’ve now found myself immersed in all things Wave – and, by default, all things Google. My Wave experience has so far been a fascinating (if a bit premature, because it really is very early days for Wave) glimpse into the future. It has the potential to be a *really* useful tool, significantly changing the way we communicate and collaborate electronically. And, if it takes off in the way Google expect it to – and at the moment I see no reason why it won’t – then it will also have significant implications for digital archives and archivists.

But first, a bit more about Google Wave itself, based on what I’ve read and experienced so far. You may be wondering, what is Google Wave, exactly? The best way I can describe it at the moment is as a communications hub. And it’s a communications hub that is still very much in an alpha release stage, but which has been made available to a small set of people for testing, criticism, and development – thus my earlier comment about it being a bit premature. Because it’s still in the early stages of development, functionality is limited and much of the conversation about Wave focuses around what it may be capable of supporting in the future rather than what it can actually do now. It’s also a ‘critical mass app’ that will only truly become effective for users once they have sufficient peers using it; given that it’s only been opened up to a small number of users at the moment, the critical mass hasn’t yet been reached so it’s difficult to get a full ‘wave experience’ just yet – you have to use your imagination.

What is it for? The core function of Google Wave is to create, share, and collaborate on ‘waves’ of information and content. Users create and share ‘waves’ between each other. A ‘wave’ is, in other words, a stream or thread of information that is collaboratively generated and managed. Waves contain ‘wavelets’, which are threaded conversations originating from an initial wave of their own, and wavelets contain ‘blips’, which are the single message units contributed by users.

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Google Wave Drips With Ambition. A New Communication Platform For A New Web.

From the TechCrunch blog ... about the best overview I've yet read on Google Wave - which if only half of is true will change how many of us communicate. Think instant collaboration combining e-mail, twitter, Facebook, Lotus Notes etc ...

"Yesterday, during the Google I/O keynote, Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, laid out a grand vision for the direction Google sees the web heading towards with the move to the HTML 5 standard. While we’re not there yet, all the major browser players besides Microsoft are aligned and ready for the next phase, which will include such things as the ability to run 3D games and movies in the browser without additional plug-ins. But Google wants to take it one step further with a brand new method of communication for this new era. It’s called Google Wave.

Everyone uses email and instant messaging on the web now, but imagine if you could tie those two forms of communication together and add a load of functionality on top of it. At its most fundamental form, that’s essentially what Wave is. Developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen and Stephanie Hannon out of Google’s Sydney, Australia offices, Wave was born out of the idea that email and instant messaging, as successful as they still are, were both created a very long time ago. We now have a much more robust web full of content and brimming with a desire to share stuff. Or as Lars Rasumussen put it, “Wave is what email would look like if it were invented today.”

Having seen a lengthy demonstration, as ridiculous as it may sound, I have to agree. Wave offers a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale. The much better comparison is coincidentally the company started by another group of (former) Googlers, FriendFeed. But Wave is a different product for a number of reasons, and seemingly has loftier goals — all of which I’ll touch on below."

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