Living In Google Wave

Living In Google Wave: "

I’m sending more and more collaboration tasks and conversations to Google Wave. I use it in place of the phone for a very simple reason: I’m not on the ground and in people’s time zones often enough to make the phone convenient. But further, it allows us both to see the conversation and refer to it as we move along. It allows newcomers to get caught up simply without us wasting time rehashing. It allows me to work while you sleep.

I’m not using many of the frilly plugins. I’m just using it for conversations.

One trick we do a lot: put the “good” or “clean” stuff at the top of the wave, and then use the bottom part for the conversation. Then, we can run up to the top, edit the “good” part, and keep that as the master copy.

Things I wish it had: groups for contacts, so that I could ping the HBW group in one shot; Export to DOC/PDF so I could send the “good” Wave to people not in the wave; sidebar chat, so that we could see our chatter in the upper right but dump it below, while looking at the “good” part of the wave.

But I’m not pushing it. In fact, I’m keeping these notes more for people thinking on innovating on Wave, so that they can see how users are doing things with it, and so they can adapt and advance their product ideas accordingly.

What I’m NOT doing is just waving to wave, or chit-chatting. I appreciate that people are interesting in just kicking the tires, but I’m not really available for that. I’m using it for projects and plans right now, but much less interested in general chat.

That said, I have an idea for a paid “Wave-only” event some time in the near future. Stay tuned. : )

For me, Wave has become my go to place to think, to share, to coalesce, to make projects happen. In fact, when I look at my online ecosystem, here’s what I do where:

• Facebook: connect with friends and family.
  
• LinkedIn: share professional networks.
  
• Twitter: communicate in real time, and find the new good stuff.
  
• Google Wave: work on the future.
  
• Blog: think and muse and share and publish.
  

It’s tucked in there nicely.

What about you? Are you there yet? Are you finding much value yet? What are you collaborating on? What matters next?

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