I promised I would blog on my impressions of tonight's test of Google Wave. Approximately sixteen of us from a number of different companies attempted to do a formal test of Google Wave. The theme for the evening was corporate use of LinkedIn. However, our goal was not so much to discuss LinkedIn, but rather to have a set topic for our Wave. Here are my impressions;
- Our wave started at 7 pm Central time. It was scheduled for one hour
- The wave just keeps on rolling ... 193 messages have been posted in about 2 hours
- While we tried to stick to our topic, we ended up often discussing Wave itself
- Confusion was often apparent. When you can see five or six people typing in "real time" it gets easy to become distracted from your current thought.
- None of us really understand what a Wave is yet. It's not a wiki; it's not email, and the group is evolving.
I was hoping to post a number of screenshots, but I now understand that would violate the privacy of the group. We did have some good discussions, which obviously I want to respect. One idea that comes to mind after this experience is it might be a good idea to pre-build a wave. In other words, if someone created content which a group could critique ... the end result might be very valuable.
(see information about our group's Google Wave Test # 2 ... including an invite)
Here are a few Wave resources I found in preparing for tonight:
- An business Wave example from SAP Research: Gravity
- A good list of Google Gadgets to get you started.
- A Google Wave Quick Reference Guide
- Google Wave Extensions & Gadgets List (from Google)
Please note that the guide is not my work, but the original site now seems to crash (docs.docstoc.com)
Finally, here is one screenshot from tonight's Wave before we got started. Click to maximize.

My wave account just 'came through' this morning. Is there any way I can go back and view the wave?
Posted by: Anthony | October 30, 2009 at 07:14 AM