Author Topic: Anybody else playing with Wave? (Read 35,401 times)

40hz · « **Reply #25 on:** October 16, 2009, 02:41 AM »

Clueless Tech Desperately Seeking Insight

OK...

Perhaps I'm dense, but I don't see what the buzz is all about just from reading/viewing Google's promo pieces.

So far, Wave strikes me as a mash-up of existing technologies. Something like a digital whiteboard meets MediaWiki meets Facebook meets Twitter.

Still, I'm guessing there might be synergies somewhere in there that I'm missing by not being involved. Maybe with Wave, you can't really "get it" until you have some hands-on experience.

So could some of the DoCo participants who do have some "hands-on" bring the rest of us up to date on their initial impressions? And possibly discuss how they see Wave fitting in with (or possibly replacing) the tools we're using now?

JavaJones · « **Reply #26 on:** October 16, 2009, 04:11 AM »

Well, a couple of us are in there "Waving", heh. It's a bit confusing and hectic. People can see your typing *as* you type, so they see your typing speed, typos (before you correct them), etc. It's interesting. You can also have massive threaded conversations happening in realtime, so someone may be responding to a post way up above in the thread while you're responding to something else. Now it does mark things as unread, so you can find them, but to do that so far it seems like you have to "scrub" through the "wave" with the slider on the right. I don't see a "jump through unread messages/edits" thing. Also you can edit yours or anyone else's post (no way so far I see to mark something as not editable by others - needed feature IMO), but when you do edit, it just marks the post unread, it doesn't highlight what was edited which IMO would be helpful.

So far it's very interesting, but I really don't see a useful place for it in my workflow. It just seems too scattered, or at least too easily scattered. If you had disciplined, smart, fast people using it, they could use it effectively as a very powerful collaborative tool, but you'd really need a commonly agreed upon organizational approach, for one thing. Part of the value as well as the challenge of "Wave" IMO is that it doesn't enforce this so much. There are fewer "rules" than there are with email, chat, forum, etc.

One thing I know almost for certain: this will not catch on on a large scale if it stays like this. It's just far too scattering and hard to manage for most people. To say nothing of its practical utility in the workplace. Most people I know can hardly manage nonrealtime email communications, let alone this crazy multi-threaded thing...

- Oshyan

app103 · « **Reply #27 on:** October 16, 2009, 04:15 AM »

I am sitting here staring at Google Wave with a totally clueless look on my face.

I kind of agree with a lot that is posted here: http://easiertounderstandthanwave.com/

If someone wants to add me and perhaps enlighten me as to why this is so "great" feel free to add omgplzstfukthx [at] googlewave.com

Kamel · « **Reply #28 on:** October 16, 2009, 04:20 AM »

i definitely do not agree with that website app, complicated things are excellent, when the complication is necessary. Unnecessary complication, however, is just clutter and confusing.

app103 · « **Reply #29 on:** October 16, 2009, 04:23 AM »

Well for me, I understand "The Geopolitical Climate of Southeast Asia" better than MySpace, so it's not saying much that couldn't be applied to Google Wave, as well.

justice · « **Reply #30 on:** October 16, 2009, 05:06 AM »

http://danieltenner.com/posts/0012-google-wave.html

sri · « **Reply #31 on:** October 16, 2009, 05:49 AM »

This is a screenshot I took from a while ago.

(click on the attachment for full size)

TucknDar · « **Reply #32 on:** October 16, 2009, 07:36 AM »

Well, if anybody have an invite to spare, then I'd be happy to join the DC Waveathon

Deozaan · « **Reply #33 on:** October 16, 2009, 08:53 AM »

Hey that's strange. In the DC Waveathon it doesn't show me your avatar, and from that screenshot, it doesn't show you mine either.

But I can see rno2's and CWuestefeld's, just like you can. I can also see app's and chingo's (btw who is chingo?).

Initially it seems as though Google Wave hides your e-mail address from people. After all, you can add me by using deozaan {at} googlewave.com which if you send an e-mail to, doesn't actually reach me (or show up as a wave). But I've found all of the people I added to my Google Wave Contacts in my Gmail contacts, with their real e-mail address in place of the placeholder googlewave address. Either that or I already had most of you fine folks in my Gmail contacts before this. Though I'm fairly certain that JavaJones wasn't in my Gmail Contacts before and he is now.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #34 on:** October 16, 2009, 10:51 AM »

I've just received my invite!

I'm with Deozzan, though.. Too litle people to talk to

markan · « **Reply #35 on:** October 16, 2009, 11:35 AM »

I'm sorry about adding to the pile - but if anyone has a stray invite I would be very interested

Last time I was hooked up with a preview software invite via DC was Dropbox and that turned out very happily!!

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #36 on:** October 16, 2009, 11:42 AM »

I'd talk with anybody if they sent me an invite

Jibz · « **Reply #37 on:** October 16, 2009, 12:57 PM »

I even wrote them a haiku and didn't get an invite .. so I've put google on ignore

.

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #38 on:** October 16, 2009, 02:36 PM »

One thing we've discovered is that a Wave can quickly get so full of gunk that it's not usable anymore.

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #39 on:** October 16, 2009, 02:41 PM »

Quote from: CWuestefeld on October 16, 2009, 02:36 PM

One thing we've discovered is that a Wave can quickly get so full of gunk that it's not usable anymore.

Not that I've actually used it yet, but the concept seemed very like twitter in that if you're reading everyone you're following... well, you couldn't... so you need to filter somehow. I'm presuming that that will become possible, if not already?

Tuxman · « **Reply #40 on:** October 17, 2009, 12:17 AM »

I - personally - would never use anything which resides on Google's servers. Maybe when it is completely open source...

Kamel · « **Reply #41 on:** October 17, 2009, 08:00 PM »

Quote from: Tuxman on October 17, 2009, 12:17 AM

I - personally - would never use anything which resides on Google's servers. Maybe when it is completely open source...

I tend to agree with this notion more every day. Though, I do use google for a lot of things, I am still quite wary of it. Their style of wanting to become the sole way anyone does anything is taking a search engine way too far.

Tuxman · « **Reply #42 on:** October 17, 2009, 08:03 PM »

A search engine with much quantity and less quality, just to make it complete...

Deozaan · « **Reply #43 on:** October 17, 2009, 11:04 PM »

Quote from: Perry Mowbray on October 16, 2009, 02:41 PM

Not that I've actually used it yet, but the concept seemed very like twitter in that if you're reading everyone you're following... well, you couldn't... so you need to filter somehow. I'm presuming that that will become possible, if not already?

You don't really "follow" people like you do in Twitter. You're either in the same wave as someone else, or you're not. Think of it as similar to IRC. You don't see every message your friends on IRC make in any channel. You have to be in the same channel as them to see what they're saying.

Jibz · « **Reply #44 on:** October 20, 2009, 06:36 AM »

If anyone can add me to the DonationCoder wave-athon, my address is jibsen at that googlewave address you all know that ends with a com (regexp that you darn bots, ha!).

PPLandry · « **Reply #45 on:** November 30, 2009, 02:26 AM »

Wavers can put their Address in a wiki I created for this purpose. Details here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18504.msg185971#msg185971