Google’s Wave is supposed to be the answer to “what would email look like if it were invented today”, but the more I hear and read about it, I think that it might be more “what would interactions on the web be like if they were all invented today”? With the understanding that the ideas for Wave come from having lived through early versions and that Wave only looks like what it does because we have elements of old paradigms present and refined. If this were all invented today it might all look like <gets ready to duck><ducks> Twitter <cautiously pops back up> for all we know. But enough of the “if today” conversation, what could come from Google’s latest creation?
To the common, slightly geeky user, I think Wave could really become the ideal social networking tool. Geeks have specialized silos to store all their bits and pieces, they use tools like RSS to pull them into this place or that. As a last resort, geeks can use a direct link to post their content to forums or other systems as needed. These people have likely been hesitant to use Social Networking tools like Facebook for the grey space that used to define who owns what. But to the masses, social networking sites are their silo. They drop all thier pictures, their writing and their personal information there without very much thought. This may be a side effect of having a generation of ‘net users using LMSs at school.
If Google succeeds, then there will be this great world of data that “just is” and through the magic that is Wave, gets connected up into conversations that happen with variable levels of synchronicity to allow for collaboration. But a problem still exists insofar that the geeks will still need to store their data in their specialized silo and the non geeks will still need a general silo. Google’s solution to this might be the “federated” model of servers – which is great… but who is going to want to do it?. I can’t see Facebook all of the sudden thinking that it would be a good idea to use set up a Wave server to allow their users to collaborate with non users and the same is likely true with all manner of other SNSs and other services out there. Of course, if Wave is all that it is purported to be, then these other companies might just make the leap for their users. But what if the common geek and the common ‘net user aren’t the main audience for this service?
If the main design ethos behind this technology was to rethink email and the main users of email are now within corporate and the main place that people would need to collaborate is at work, then the office space might be where one should be looking to see what Wave might be all about. The “enterprise” market is all about communication and collaboration and there are many tools to allow individuals within these corporations to achieve this end. If there is a company that wants to hoard all it’s data, but still wants people to work together, the possibility exists for a “standing wave” (my term/attempt at a pun) that doesn’t move data anywhere outside it’s definition. Other companies might want to come up with an easy way to have teams of people collaborate between silos should the need ever arise, and it seems that Google has that covered as well.
So which enterprise (if any) want to be able to both hoard and share data? Well… I would think Higher Ed (and education in general) would love to be able to share when needed, and protect the rest of the time. Thinking simplistically, universities and school boards are almost all now using an LMS to be able to store most, if not all content related to their mission in one place. This is fine for most of the day to day activities of the enterprise, but not for those odd times for when outside users are needing access. Sure the host instition can provide guest access through many means, but this is a cludge as the user likely has content at the home location that might be useful in the collaboration. Bringing this content over is often a hassle even if both institutions use the same system. Wave might be able to change this.
In Higher Ed, this might mean that researchers would be able to collaborate with ease as “Wave Enabled” (I call TM if nobody else has used this term) institutions would be able to use permissions to allow the guests access to the host institute with ease and then be able to move content back and forth with ease and all through one U/P combination. This of course is one of the more exotic situations that might come about. A far more mundane example would be students taking courses. If Wave is used as the interface to an existing or future LMS (Wave based or not) students will have, for the first time, an LMS that is based around the idea of collaboration and not simply storage and presentation. Micheal Feldstien has a great writeup on this here.
So when all is said and done, we might not be saying farwell to silos, but with tools/ideas like what Google has put forward, we are starting to punch out windows to allow those inside those silos to “Wave”. If you are still interested in other takes on Wave, check out – this writeup on ComputerWorld.
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