At one point in the Google Wave Preview video, Lars Rasmussen proposes the question what email would look like if it was invented at this point of time. He continues by telling that there are a million ways to concretize the question and that Google Wave is their attempt.

I must say, it’s an impressive translation of their vision on the question.

On the 30th of September Google Wave will be (semi-) publicly released to world, 100.000 people will get an invite for the next version of the system.

Having the possibility of a sneak peek, test and discover the system in Dev Preview gives a sense of what this platform will mean for communication and collaboration in the 21st century and its Enterprise 2.0.

First of all, to understand what Google Wave is, the three layers of the system as explained on the original post on the Google Blog:

• The Google Wave product (available as a developer preview) is the web application people will use to access and edit waves. It’s an HTML 5 app, built on Google Web Toolkit. It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets you drag a set of photos right into a wave).
• Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services, and to build new extensions that work inside waves.
• The Google Wave protocol is the underlying format for storing and the means of sharing waves, and includes the “live” concurrency control, which allows edits to be reflected instantly across users and services. The protocol is designed for open federation, such that anyone’s Wave services can interoperate with each other and with the Google Wave service. To encourage adoption of the protocol, we intend to open source the code behind Google Wave.

The three layers indicate the ambitions of Wave and its impact on the Internet landscape. The platform and protocol, the open source approach, quick adoption and diffusion will be accomplished and Google Wave applications can be intertwined throughout business.

With communication channels like SMS, IM, microblogging etc, Google Wave perfectly fits in the hyper-responsive and -communicative society we live in, with a real-time touch.

The good thing about Google Wave is that the service does not replace, but complements current used communication channels and systems, like email, IM and microblogging.

Collaborative tools though should be more aware of the system due to the high flexibility and possibilities offered by Google Wave.

Google Wave can be the nexus, the all-in-one communication tool for the company, be it internally and/or externally.

Internally the focus will be on efficiency and relevancy and making sure that the vast amount of information and knowledge is clearly and simply distributed to the right persons.

Externally the focus will be on collaboration, within the perspective and impact of Google Wave, it’s even more important that a company builds communities around the brand, superfast content creation and modification belongs to the possibilities which create an extra challenge of making sure that the brand-portability is in favor of the company.

Prosumerism will be boosted and co-creation gets to the next level.

Transparency is the new marketing, Google Wave offers an interesting product, platform and protocol that infuse transparency, portability and co-creation.

What are your predictions for Google Wave in relation to Enterprise 2.0, the Internet landscape and communication?

—– —– —–
Originally published on the Agora Media Group blog by Gianluigi Cuccureddu.

No related posts.