Gentle Waves

Let me first apologize to the people who don't yet have Wave accounts - it must be very boring and also frustrating listening to people wax on about things you can't yet experience.

On that note, I do have a few invitations left for regular contributors, customers, and so on.. Just drop me an email.

For those who do have accounts, I'm "pcunix@googlewave.com" and you can find my public waves by searching "with:public creator:pcunix".

Now what I really wanted to talk about.

Last night, I presented Google Wave to our little retirement community Computer Club. They are a mixed crowd: we have a guy who programmed systems in the early 50's for the Department of Defense, another man who managed programmers before he retired, other people who used computers extensively at their jobs... and people who are struggling to understand email.

I can't make everybody happy, but I do try to keep things basic enough for the newbies and deep enough not to bore the old hands. Obviously that can never be entirely successful, but I thought the reactions last night were interesting.

Some people "got it" very quickly. They understood it so much that they were arguing with the people who didn't get it, saying things, like "No, really, this would have been a fantastic tool to have for the work I used to do!" Others were obviously confused.

One man in particular almost seemed angry. "It's confusing", he said. "Why do I need all this stuff that it does? I don't - I do fine with email!"

I was momentarily tempted to ask why he comes to Computer Club if he doesn't want to learn anything new, but I realized that wasn't what he meant: he just doesn't want to learn a new way of doing email. Email as it exists now meets his needs, he doesn't need to combine it with IM, doesn't need in-line replies, doesn't need Yes/No gadgets - doesn't need the confusion, thank you very much. If Google or anybody else is going to try to drag him into using Wave, he'll be kicking and screaming all the way.

I offered my argument that as we start to use Wave for some things, we'll realize that we ought to start with a Wave just because we might need it to be a Wave later. Someone else agreed, pointing out that if you have two ways of doing something, you'll naturally settle in to using one, probably the more powerful way, even if you don't use all of its features all the time. Our Mr. Confused was having none of that, though. As I said, he seemed a little angry - perhaps he had the idea that Google was somehow going to force this upon him.

That's not how its going to happen. Nor are people like him ever going to ask for a Wave account just to kick the tires. Too confusing, no perceived value, not going to happen.

I think that what WILL happen is that Mr. Confused and Mrs. I Never Heard of It Anyway are going to get softly dragged in. That is, they'll click on a Web page that invites them to join a discussion group or to get more information about some subject they are interested in. When they access that link, they'll need a Wave account. By that time, that will be an instant or near instant process - much like getting a Gmail account now. To these people, this will just be another web page, something they need this "Wave account" to access, but that's simple.

They may not even realize at first that they have a new tool. It's just a discussion about local tax rates with their neighbors, or a list of resources and information about something else. They may not realize that they now have the ability to create their own waves. They may know nothing about Yes/No gadgets until they see one and use it. But over time, as they have joined more Waves, they'll start to "get it". Maybe a more technical friend will show them a few tricks, maybe they'll read a little how-to at another web page - or at another Wave!

That's probably how it's going to happen for a lot of people. No kicking and screaming, just a gentle slide into something new.

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Tue Nov 3 15:07:01 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Another example of gently sliding into the Wave Pool:

Once it is easy and quick to get a Wave account, I might switch to using Waves for comments. The Wave can be embedded in this web page - I can do that now, though it would be near useless as most readers don't have Wave accounts.

The person leaving a comment won't necessarily even realize that they could use that account for other things!



Tue Nov 3 15:26:37 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Right now, I do have a public Wave discussing this: https://wave.google.com/wave/?nouacheck#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252BQT6bj-1AN.3

Though again, you still need a Wave account, sorry.



Tue Nov 3 15:34:49 2009: Subject:   donal
http://www.iforb.com

Please do go ahead and insert a wave into this coment section. It should be interesting for us with wave accounts as we can then easily reply to any comments. The wave user will be independent of the web portal and be able to continue the dialogue directly from their wave account. I image you will see an explosion in comment volume.



Tue Nov 3 15:47:01 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


No time for it today but I'll think about it tomorrow.




Tue Nov 3 18:20:40 2009: Subject:   BrettLegree
http://6weeks.ca

I believe you are right about this - folks will end up using Wave before they know it is Wave.

Sort of like people who say they don't like Linux or couldn't see how it could be useful (but they don't know that a good chunk of the web runs on Linux).

As usual, sometimes people fear things they don't understand yet, and the fear turns into distaste.

I, for one, really like what I've seen so far of Wave and I look forward to using it - one heck of a tool, it is.



Tue Nov 3 22:04:37 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Actually, that's going to take a little thought on how to integrate this into my CMS. As you need the Wave ID in header info, I need to create the Wave before the web page. I don't want to do that manually; it needs to be part of my page creation scripting.

I have to think about how to do that - learn how to do it first, then think about it :-)



Wed Nov 4 12:04:31 2009: Subject: Wave preview invites   anonymous


I am a long time reader but I rarely post here. I have about 10-12 Wave preview invites that I'd like to pass out to the readers of this site. If Tony says it's ok, I'll followup with my email address later today and hand them out on a first come first served basis.

Shane

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Wed Nov 4 12:36:11 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Very generous offer, Shane. Yes, you may post your email. Or if you'd rather keep that private, you can have people contact me and I'll forward them to you. Either way is fine.



Wed Nov 4 19:03:14 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Shane has 7 to give away. I still have about 10, so let me know (send email) if you need one.



Wed Nov 4 21:45:59 2009: Subject:   SteveWildow
http://www.tipptech.net

would humbly request a wave invite from my favorite Unix Guru and author. :-)



Wed Nov 4 21:50:49 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


I asked Shane to send yours; I'll do the next one. It can take Google a week to process the invite, so don't expect it to arrive for a few days at least.



Wed Nov 4 23:02:14 2009: Subject:   BrettLegree
http://6weeks.ca

I believe I still have 16 or 17 left - I am also willing to give them away.

-Brett



Thu Nov 5 11:11:38 2009: Subject:   Michiel


Shane wrote:

> I am a long time reader but I rarely post here.

Same here. All this talk about Wave makes me curious! I also looked at some screencasts from wave sessions and I'd like to try it.




Fri Nov 6 18:37:02 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


We'd be happy to send you an invitation, Michiel .

So far, only two people have asked...

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Fri Nov 6 20:23:56 2009: Subject:   Michiel


Thanks for the offer. Brett already sent me an invitation yesterday; I understand it can take a week until it arrives.



Sun Nov 8 10:02:20 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Here's a great example of using Wave in a place where Twitter has been used in the past: http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2009/11/google-wave-vs-twitter-at-conferences/



Mon Nov 9 17:04:31 2009: Subject: Google Wave   Gilcio


Mr. Lawrence

Do you still have Google Wave invitation to send me a copy?

Regards,

Gilcio



Tue Nov 10 20:49:56 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Yes, we can get you an invite - I need an email address to send it to.

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