Finally, success! Since those first invites were dispersed Sept. 30, I’ve been waiting with bated breath to be asked into the secret Internet funhouse that is Google Wave. This afternoon, it happened, and I surfed on over.
First reaction? Crickets chirping. Not many of us have the device yet, so it might be a bit of a waiting game until friends and work collaborators get asked to log on. Luckily, there were a couple tech-savvy people floating around out there on my contacts list.
The awesome part about Google Wave? It’s like having a business meeting without having to track a string of emails. In my first attempt/tutorial, I used Wave to plan a friend’s trip from Chicago to Washington, D.C. Here’s what the Wave, named “Ian’s Visit to D.C.,” looked like:
A few important points:
- Notice the highlighted text at the top? Wave allows for real time edits. It’s just like a wiki or a shared document in that way.
- We created a map (not pictured) of important locations relevant to Ian’s visit: My house, Dulles airport, the Spy Museum, etc. Of course, both of us were able to add and edit each pinpointed location as needed.
- Those little illustrated avatars next to us are bots: One told us what the weather is like in Washington, and the other allowed for text to be converted into emoticons (smiley faces … yeah, not sure how useful this one is, but fun to tinker with just the same).
- At the bottom, you’re able to tag your Wave. Since our Wave is public, other users can search “tourism” and our little project can pop up.
Are you starting to see how collaboration works? Wave users, what are you loving/hating? I’ve heard that the Wave is still quite buggy — Ian said it crashed his browser earlier in the planning session — but I haven’t seen any problems quite yet. Comments appreciated! (Special thanks to Ian Monroe for the invite — as he would say, so meta!)
