Sunday, November 15, 2009

Google Wave: Trying to do Too Much?



There's been a good deal of tech buzz revolving around the release of the real-time group coordination tool Google Wave on September 30th. Though many hail the benefits of this multifaceted communication platform, others question whether Google has forgone consideration of maintaining low transaction costs in favor of luring users with a multiplicity of tools. Previous literature on collective action highlights the need for organizations to make participation an easy, low risk activity for users, but having to learn new "terminology" (wavelets, blips, robots, etc: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/)

What does everyone else think? Has Google released the "wave" of the future or does it still need to work out some kinks in its seemingly convoluted system?

2 comments:

  1. Right now I think Google Wave needs further development, I believe I had read that not all features have been enabled yet. I would also argue that for Google Wave to become useful collaboration tool it must: be free & reach a critical mass of users (i.e., people I want/need to collaborate with have Wave). I think given time Wave can do for collaboration what Gmail did for email. Below is a URL to a article about 5 real-life uses of Google Wave.

    http://mashable.com/2009/11/14/google-wave-use-cases/

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  2. Wow. Etherpad looks so much more appealing right now. Google Wave does not appear to be oriented towards the everyday user. If this new technology has all kinds of new gadgets and such, then maybe Wave is more for the people who are going to be coding and doing open-source work and what not. Us laymen? We'll stick with Etherpad :)

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