My Understanding of Google Wave – Part 1
Brief analysis of Google Wave from the view point of a user. What it is, What it means to us, How to use it and so on. Possible use cases. Recently (read a few weeks ago) I got a confirmation mail from Google that my Google Account has been approved for Google Wave. I could not wait and jumped to try and see for myself what this much talked about tool is all about.
Initially, I was presented with somewhat familiar interface – like email (but its not really email) and a few waves. I was also presented with a wave to offer invitations to my friends and contacts. I could somewhat feel the difference but not really well. The trials were deferred for a few weeks due to my other commitments and it was later that I had explored the documents for Google Wave and resumed the trials. Here I share my own understanding of a Wave.
Google Wave, as I think is some kind of mix of an Email, Chat, Forum Thread, Remarks, Sharing of document (or embedding of Documents) HTML widgets, (Google Widgets) Sharing Maps, Games etc. There are certain differentiating and innovating features.
Google Wave is NOT Email
A Google Wave is NOT an email. For Email you have a client or web based client and mail servers. We are all familiar with Email and therefore no more elaborations there. Google wave has to be checked / monitored / participated by logging into the client (web based, of course. May be other clients are there too using the API) . In Google wave there are no recipients, rather there are participants.
Google Wave is NOT just Chat
Google Wave is not a simple chat conversation. There is no chat session, opposed to chat it continues. Also it is recorded (The wave itself is manifestation of recording)
Google Wave is NOT just Forum
Similarly, it’s not just another forum thread. Yes, it closely resembles a forum discussion – albeit it has a lot of other additional goodies. Read on.
Google Wave is Conversation and Events
Yes, it is like forum discussions, but participants can join and unjoin. Replay is possible which permits a time varying visualization of happenings. For example, a wavelet can have a Game in which participants can make moves (events)
Google Wave is About One person, Two persons and also Multiple Persons
A Google wave may have one or more people. I as a user can create a wave with he/she being the sole participants. It can have a two persons – like a private chat. Which is continuously recorded over a period of time. Not just this, it can have multiple participants. Any participant can join (when originator adds him) at any point – Even after wave has started. Participants also can unfollow a wave and thereby unjoin.
Google Wave is Happening
Wave is a sort of happening. People may join the wave, leave the wave (unfollow) . In that sense – it’s like a continuous (open ended) journey. Things happen in due course of time.
Google Wave is Real Time
Google wave happenings take place in real time. It’s just like meeting people in course of a journey or real meet over a period of time. There is no end – as it seems. Can we stop a wave? I do not have answer now, but the time will tell. If this feature is not there, it might be suggested and implemented sometime.
Google Wave is Asynchronous and Synchronous
Primarily Google Wave happenings are Asynchronous. Events take place as a result of some action by participants. These events are asynchronous. The entire process is real time. The results are recorded in real time.
Events Display Non Linearly
In terms of time, the display is non linear. It simply means that it is not necessary that a remark which is made or a reply to a blip is always appended. Remarks can be applied to past events even though there may be other events after that. It will show up in context of the event to which it was replied., not necessarily at the bottom.
Google Wave can be Played
In order to see the exact order of events, there is a mechanism of events to be replayed. This will show the events in successive frames as they happened over time.
Google Wave is Sharing and Collaborating
Google wave is about sharing. Users can share documents, links and objects. There are a number of Google widgets which can be shared by embedding. Games can be shared. Maps can be shared. Real time tours can be shared.. in that sense, it looks like to perform functions of twitter as well.
Google Waves are Threaded
Google Wavelets are displayed in a threaded view. Most of us are familiar and not much needed to explain it.
Embedding in Google Waves
This is really cool. Users can embed objects as has been mentioned above. This makes the wave more powerful. Objects can be many things, pictures, audio, pages, maps, games, clocks etc. Usually, it’s a code, which in turn means it’s a program, which eventually means it executes and thereby can respond to participants’ behaviors and can theoretically function like a full fledged programs.
Google Waves have Access Rights
There are access limitations. Participants can have access rights to add content to wave or simply read. This is yet not mature and not much granular access control is there. Hope Google will do that too, provided there is a sufficient demand by users.
I shall continue this in future posts…
Part 2 -My Understanding of Google Wave – Part 2
P.S. This is a new tool. Not all features have yet been tested by me. It is quite possible that once I do more extensive trials with Google Wave, I might change my opinion. You can also point me to the right direction, wherever applicable.
Really like your way to try to simplify things a little… but the truth is that, though “Google Wave is NOT email”, it can be used as such. Most of my email groups would be really benefited using a tool like it.
Of course, we still lack tools to work with it like an email, and much other ways (like IM). But the tools you can develop for it can lead it anywhere. That’s the best about wave, we can discover what it can be used to! I just wrote an article on a tool we can use to notify users of wave events… check it out here (http://developerrandomthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/wave-robot-to-notify-wave-participants-of-meaningful-events-by-email/)!
Rodrigo Gama
January 30, 2010