The first time I opened Wave I had no contacts of course. So I was immediately struck with the thought “What now?” I had a bunch of invites available so I started sending them out to co-workers and friends who requested one. But we were all unsure what to do.
Then I discovered public waves, which can be found by entering with:public in the Wave search window. After browsing a dozen public waves things finally started to click for me. Waves are conversations. Conversations about things like projects, events, vacations, proposals, reviews, places, or whatever.
Today when you start a conversation you dial up somebody on their cell, send them emails, post/comment on a blog, IM, post/reply to twitter, edit a wiki, etc. With Wave all these different communication techniques are combined into a single experience….a threaded message exchange containing functional elements from email, wikis, blogs, and instant messaging and can also include embedded documents, photos, video chats, and even conference calls.
So whenever you want to start a conversation, instead of emailing or dialing or posting, you start a wave. You then invite others to participate. Wave participants have the option to contribute to the conversation in either synchronous or asynchronous mode. They can see your message in real time if they are online, similar to IM/chat. Or they can view your message later when they login, much like traditional email and wikis. With Wave all of the messaging from multiple participants is threaded and conveniently available for future reference (who said what when) and can even be archived.
So I’m finally starting to get it.
Much of our technology is about communication and convenience, and Wave seems to be a major improvement to both.
Over the weekend I started a wave for the organization I work for because I noticed other companies and government organizations are doing the same. If the trend in web presence and marketing is towards more dynamic and personal communication as with blogs, wiki’s, and micro-blogging, then it’s easy to see how Wave can be the next evolution of these technologies.
Here are some good Wave resources:
Google Wave List of Extensions
A Clinical Infusion of Google Wave