Google Wave

[Scott_Arm]

So, if I get this right it's a hybrid of email, instant messaging, twitter, document and image sharing and it all happens in real-time. You see people typing one character at a time. It'll be interesting to say the least. I'm pretty interested. It would be neat if there were some way to merge gmail and wave so I could see both my waves and my email in the same inbox.

wave.google.com

 

[Scott_Arm]

This thing is amazing. You can watch the keynote vid at wave.google.com

 

[Davros]

Ahh the google wave fanclub - membership one

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Real-time chat seems so pedestrian, to me at least. Only a step above texting via cell phone IMHO. I much prefer the format of a forum. It encourages individuals to think before they speak rather than stating whatever comes to mind.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Real-time chat seems so pedestrian, to me at least. Only a step above texting via cell phone IMHO. I much prefer the format of a forum. It encourages individuals to think before they speak rather than stating whatever comes to mind.

To be honest, I don't really understand why they have the text appear as the person types. I think I'll stick with the regular type and send approach.

It's a much more organized way of communicating than email. I find email is great for one on one conversations, but it gets messy at work when we have these mail chains going around, copying people from all over the world. Mails start branching off with the same subject line but with fewer people on the list, and it just gets weird if you have to back and look at it four months later.

If you can use it like a chatroom/messenger, then that's great too because most of my friends have google accounts.

The collaborative approach to editing documents in real time and being able to play back the additions/changes is also very very cool. I didn't watch the entire hour and twenty minutes but I saw that you could take your edited document and start it off as a clean wave, but I didn't catch if there was some form of revisioning in there, or if you'd have to do it manually.

I think they could do a lot of cool stuff with this.

 

[rpg.314]

this thing rocks

 

[Davros]

Real-time chat seems so pedestrian,

Er.... great minds ?

Microsoft patents holographic meetings - The patent ( http://www.patents.com/VIRTUAL-OFFICE-DEVICES/US20090119604/en-US/ )is rather vague on the actual hardware and software that would create these holographic meetings, although it does include 21 pictures and diagrams of how these meetings would take place. Patrice Simard, chief scientist and manager of the recently gutted Microsoft Live Labs, is listed as one of the inventors. (Live Labs is responsible for developing Photosynth, and a few other nifty Web apps.) Simard is the inventor for a whole lotta Microsoft patents including some for machine learning, activity detection, digital ink and a whiteboard imaging system. Given the connection, sheer speculation would lead us to conclude that holographic meetings could one day be an online service for Windows Live users that one-ups the kind of shared PowerPoint and voice apps that passes for a virtual meeting these days.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Did you guys watch any of the keynote? Wave really isn't about real-time text chat. That's just one part of what makes the whole thing fit together. The technology is fairly interesting, though it isn't as big a leap as holographic conferencing would be. It's just a clever and practical hybrid of the communication tools we currently use. The total package looks to be very nice and complete. Hopefully it works as well as advertised.

 

[Humus]

I hope they've thought everything through so that if this thing is going to replace email at some point it'll be secure enough to eliminate the problem of spam.

 

[Davros]

Then how will you know about all those fantastic nigerian business deals ?

 

[suryad]

Did you guys watch any of the keynote? Wave really isn't about real-time text chat. That's just one part of what makes the whole thing fit together. The technology is fairly interesting, though it isn't as big a leap as holographic conferencing would be. It's just a clever and practical hybrid of the communication tools we currently use. The total package looks to be very nice and complete. Hopefully it works as well as advertised.

Agreed with your post.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Got into the beta. My contact list is empty.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

I like the look of it and would love to have a play, but unless other people are using it, it is useless.
Until it becomes ubiquitous it is not a replacement for email.

CC

 

[Scott_Arm]

They're doing the whole invite thing, but they're controlling it. I'm able to "nominate" 8 people.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Nominate me! I was looking for an in.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'm being flooded with nominate requests from friends and forum goers.

 

[suryad]

Nominate me as well! I signed up for the request but I have not been approved yet!

 

[Scott_Arm]

It was weird. Yesterday I read all these stories saying the beta was already full and this morning I had an invite waiting for me in gmail. So I'd say there is still a chance you'll get in if you signed up. They may be slowly sending them out, rather than sending them all out on day one.

By the way, it's really cool, but kind of weird editing a wave for my own enjoyment. There are some interface issues, but the way it works is pretty cool. A wave could quickly turn into a mess if people aren't careful about where they put their replies.

For instance if I typed:

"I will punch your face"

Someone could reply to the word "punch" and you get something that looked like this:

Scott: I will punch
BadReplier: I don't want to be punched.
Scott: your face.

The original message is pretty difficult to read. You could use the "playback" feature to see the original message, but that could be annoying depending how many times the wave was edited.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Nominate people you will actually use it to communicate with. Otherwise you will end up unable to use it, as noone you know is on it!
So send it to family or friends would be my suggestion.


CC

 

[Scott_Arm]

Nominate people you will actually use it to communicate with. Otherwise you will end up unable to use it, as noone you know is on it!
So send it to family or friends would be my suggestion.


CC

Yep. Made sure to nominate some of my closest friends and family.

So, nobody else actually has wave? Right now I'm sitting with any empty contact list. The nomination process is slow, I guess.