google wave

Google Wave

John Raynor – Business Research ServicesHigh Point Public Library

Mark Sanders – Head of ReferenceEast Carolina University

Why Google Wave?

Email was invented in 1971.

Email’s Limitations

Why Google Wave?

Email was invented in 1971.Before HTML, the browser, and the World-Wide Web


Why Google Wave?

Email was invented in 1971.Before HTML, the browser, and the World-Wide Web

Before the graphic user interface


Why Google Wave? Email’s Limitations

Email was invented in 1971.Before the HTML, the browser, and the World-Wide Web

Before the graphic user interface

Before the personal computer

An Apple I computer in its hand-made case, circa 1976


In September of 1971,ARPANET (the Internet’s precursor) had only 18 nodes


In September of 1971,ARPANET (the Internet’s precursor) had only 18 nodes

The DEC PDP-10s at BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusettswhich sent, and received, the first ARPANET email with an “@” sign

(from Ray Tomlinson’s personal web page)


To its credit, email hasn’t fallen completely behind the times,but its ability to display content is still seriously limited.


To its credit, email hasn’t fallen completely behind the times



Images are relegated to the end of the message, as “attachments,” and viewing them often involves extra steps.



Email can’t, moreover, display “live” content from theInternet – it can only provide links to it.


Traditional email is simply the electronicequivalent of the old-fashioned paper memo


You send an email message, and the recipient gets a copy…

…which is as inert, and as immutable,as a paper memo in a filing cabinet.


Email’s other problems:

Original messages are appended to the ends of replies.Replying to one specific part of an email message involvescutting-and-pasting quoted passages, and inserting new text between them.

It’s hard to add new participants to an email-based conversation and bring them “up to speed.”

Likewise, replying to some, but not all, of the people in an email-based conversation involves sending duplicate messages with edited recipient lists.

Why Google Wave? Email Re-Invented

So what, then, is a wave?



A wave is not just another kind of message!



A wave is not just another kind of message!

A wave is a semi-permanent online spacein which two or more users can interact and

create content together.


Email is like…

sending memosback and forth


Email is like…

sending memosback and forth

Google Wave is like…

sharing a conference roomwith your collaborators


Google Wave shares some featureswith other kinds of online communication/collaboration:

Wikis and Google Docs: Multiple author documents with revision control




Instant Messaging: You can see who’s logged in, and work together in real-time




Instant Messaging: You can see who’s logged in, and work together in real-time

Online Forums: “Threaded” conversations

A Brief History of Wave

•Developed by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen in Sydney, Australia circa 2004-2007

•Announced by Google May 2009

•Preview released to 100,000 developers in September 2009

•Released to the general public in May 2010

•August 2010 - discontinue new standalone Wave development

Basic Wave functionality

Let’s Look at a Wave


Running conversations both public (group) and private (individual)


Embedded videos


Embedded web pages


Attached files


Photo slideshow

Extensions

Gadgets – Maps

Extensions

Gadgets – Yes/No/Maybe

Extensions

Extensions – Polls

Extensions

Robots

Extensions

Extensions – Games

Why Google Wave? Google Wave’s Strengths

Sharing lots of information with a team andquickly making decisions


Communication whichinvolves sharing images and files


Developing content collaboratively

Writing the Declaration of Independenceas a Google Wave demonstration


Developing content collaboratively

An important caveat: Google Wave is good for working out whatyou want to say, but is not good for creating polished documents!Wave’s formatting and document-export capabilities are limited.

Why Google Wave? Google Wave in Practice

Google Wave is not an“all-purpose communication tool”



The USF Tampa Library’s Experience with Wave

Wave was used by the library’s website-redesign team

• Many issues converged before the site could “go live”

• Decisions had to be made quickly – it was “crunch time”

• Information had to be shared with the whole team




Unfortunately…

• Weekly team meetings were no longer enough

• Subsets of the team were sharing information by email,• but not everyone was staying “in the loop,” all the time.




The new website “went live” in mid-December of 2009.

The library hasn’t used Google Wave since then.

Why Google Wave? Wave’s Limitations

A wave should not be regardedas a “permanent” product



A wave’s potential forgrowth is naturally limited.

As a wave grows,it tends to slow down.



A wave does not, moreover,have much intrinsic structure



A wave does not, moreover,have much intrinsic structure

If a wave gets too big, findingthe new content gets harder.

In a busy wave, new blipsmay need to be re-posted


So how “permanent” is a wave?

The USF-Tampa Library’swebsite-redesign experience:

• 6 project team-members

• used over a 6-week period

• 100-150 edits/day at peak use


So how “permanent” is a wave?

The USF-Tampa Library’swebsite-redesign experience:

• 6 project team-members

• used over a 6-week period

• 100-150 edits/day at peak use

5 waves, roughly 1 per week


Keeping waves manageable

Prune away digressions, “empty” blips, and any unneeded “me-too” blips.

Get team-members to use Wave’s ability to thread replies



Prune away digressions, “empty” blips, and any unneeded “me-too” blips.

Get team-members to use Wave’s ability to thread replies

Over-pruning can be reversedwith the “Playback” function



Divide your team’s total“traffic” between two or moretopic-specific waves.

Each topic-specific wave getsless traffic, and thus last longer



Divide your team’s total“traffic” between two or moretopic-specific waves.

Each topic-specific wave getsless traffic, and thus last longer

Agree, in advance, on a teampolicy for starting new waves.

Wave in a Box

Future of Google Wave?

•an application bundle including a server and web client supporting real-time collaboration using the same structured conversations as the Google Wave system•a fast and fully-featured wave panel in the web client with complete support for threaded conversations•a persistent wave store and search implementation for the server•refinements to the client-server protocols•gadget, robot and data API support •support for importing wave data from wave.google.com•the ability to federate across other Wave in a Box instances, with some additional configuration

http://wave.google.com/

google wave

Documents

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