Posts Tagged ‘google wave’

Posted on June 9, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

5 How to use Google Wave YouTube videos to watch for better understanding of real-time collaboration

Google Wave has been out now for little over a year and depending on who you ask it’s a great tool or it’s a flop. Personally I’m a big fan of Google Wave and use it almost daily with my partners. Note I said with my partners because collaborating with others is the number one way to use Google Wave in it’s current state. Yes you can take notes, make a to-do-list, or write blog post in Google Wave but to really understand the power of Google Wave it’s best to use it working with a team on projections.

Often I’ll Tweet how much I like Google Wave and then I’ll get a response like the one above or that people are trying to compare Google Wave to another social network such as Facebook or Twitter. Google Wave does have friends list/contacts and you could look at the inbox as a wall but I don’t think that’s the correct approach. At one point I remember saying that Google Wave could even replace email. I still think it could but for right now Google Wave is all about collaboration.

To help users learn how to get more out of Google Wave, Google created a series of getting started YouTube videos. Here are 5 how to use Google Wave Youtube videos if you’re new to Google Wave.

1. Meet Google Wave

2. Managing your inbox

3. Google Wave: 15 features

4. Replying to waves

5. Editing waves

Do you use Google Wave if so how? If not why not?

Posted on May 28, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Google Wave turns one, then tweets and how to embed a Google Wave blip into any website

In case you missed it, Google Wave turned one year old today. I’m not sure what Google or the Google Wave team did to celebrate but the @Google Twitter account tweeted Happy Birthday about the news and soon the @googlewave team retweeted the message as you can see above and below.

Back in January I wrote a blog post called 9 practical ways to use Google Wave for business and fast forward six months later I’m still using Google Wave for business. Little did I know it was “Wave’s birthday and earlier today I tweeted the following message:

At the time I tweeted the message it was after reviewing some of the Google Wave “blips” / conversations that the TriOut team were having and some of the milestones we were reaching. Fast forward a few hours later Google Wave Product Manager Steph Hannon @twephanie tweeted the following:

No, Steph Hannon @twephanie thank you and the Google Wave team for continuing making a useful FREE collaborative tool for entrepreneurs like myself to use for team projects.

Since Google Wave launched from closed beta to public access one of the most requested features was to make it easy for people to embed Google Wave blip messages into a blog post or any website. I’m not sure when it was released but you can embed a google wave into any website with a Google Web Element called “Wave Element”. To do so go to: http://www.google.com/webelements/wave/ and just past the wave url you want to embed in the box and the Wave Element will provide you with the code to embed. Here’s an example and closing question below.

How are you using Google Wave?

Posted on January 11, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

9 practical ways to use Google Wave for business

It goes without saying that to some Google Wave was one of most overhyped technologies to launch in 2009. From being called a failed product to users widely complaining about how to just use the platform. And we’re not talking about just the average users, even some of the social web elitist such as Kevin Rose who tweeted “playing w/google wave, what does this do exactly?” and Robert Scoble who tweeted “I don’t like Google Wave and am avoiding using it until they make major UI fixes.”

Other complaints about Google Wave have been that there is no real value to using it over other web services such as instant messenger. Plus there were hundreds of other blog posts asking will Google Wave replace Gmail/email or Facebook and what are Google’s long term plan for Google Wave. I don’t have all the answers to satisfy the frustrated Google Wave user, but I do know how I’m using Google Wave and I love it. I use Google Wave daily at Twine Interactive on various projects, and Lawrence Ingraham and I use it while working on TriOut. I also use Google Wave for event planning and blogging. How you ask? Here are 8 practical ways to use Google Wave for business.

1. Collaborative note taking:
Using Google Wave for collaborative note taking can happen in meetings or conference calls. Often I find myself taking notes in Google Wave then adding other team members to the wave to review notes and add feedback from the meeting.

2. Crowdsourcing conference notes:
Let’s say you’re at a conference and there are multiple sessions at one time that you want to attend. You can make a conference wave and ask a friend to take notes in Google Wave for the other session and add you to the wave. Also you can ask others in other sessions to add their notes to the wave too by just adding them to the wave.

3. Task List for application or project development
It’s easy to make a task list inside of Google Wave, but the best part about it is that you can easily have conversations about each task, including listing marking pros and cons of the task.

4. Shareable resource library
With Google Wave it’s easy to create an information list. You may already be part of a Google Wave that is full of links on how to us Google Wave. If you want to create a list of links about a project, just add the links to the wave and add other team members to the wave. Everyone added to the wave can also add their own links to the wave.

5. Unclutter your inbox
If you’re like me, you receive too many emails every day. Even though I do belive Google Wave will “someday” replace Gmail, you can have colleagues cut down on email and just contact you via Google Wave.

6. Low risk internal communication platform
Are you looking for a simple inexspenive way to communicate with all of your employee or coworkers? Or to share files with everyone in your department. Just create an internal Google Wave company policy and Google Wave can handle the rest as a bare bones minimal platform.

7. Customer feedback forum
If you’re designing a prototype or uploading a beta release of a product and would like to organize all of your feedback about various versions of the files, then Google Wave is a perfect platform to handle inline feedback. With postings in Google Wave that look like threaded comment, it’s easy to follow who addressed each comment.

8. Event planning:
Recently I was planning a social media club meeting in Raleigh, NC. Instead of emailing my partners I made a Google Wave with the details and added the team to the wave. I not only helped unclutter my inbox, but it served the purpose of our entire communication process by making sure we were prepared for the the event.

9. Lunch orders
Have you ever had to take a lunch order from your coworkers and you’re stuck being the one to write all of the orders down? Well no more. Just create a Google Wave and ask each one of them to add their order to Google Wave and your simple, self serve lunch order is done. As adoption increases, we’ll add restaurants to Google Wave to fulfill our lunch orders.

Basically if you have a project and you need to have some sort of collaboration, you can find a use for Google Wave for the project.

What are some of the ways you are using Woogle Wave in your business?

Feel free to add me to your Google Wave contacts by using: waynesutton@googlewave.com

Posted on December 11, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Friday Fix: 6 ways to track your blips in Google Wave

Friday Fix are short post on niche topics/plugins/tools/presentations or you could call them short simple tips.

As Google Wave continues to evolve one of the many complaints about Wave is there is no way to receive a notification when you have a new “blip” aka Google Wave message in general. Well after a few weeks and giving programmers some time, it seems there are a few Google Wave desktop notifiers and extensions for both Firefox and Google Chrome.

Chrome Extension – Google Wave Checker

Google Wave Checker

Unofficial Google Wave Notifier for mac

Google Wave Notifier Beta for Windows

Google Wave Add-on for Firefox 0.0.3

Prism or Fluid or Wave Desktop App

PS: If you’re asking what a “blip” is read: Google Wave: A Complete Guide via Mashable

Posted on December 1, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Google Wave review part 2: screencast, thoughts, examples and resources.

As Google Wave invites continue to spread like wildfire and more than just geeks are starting to explore Google Wave, I’ve seen an increase in the “what are your thoughts on Google Wave” questions. I’m humbled that individuals are interested in my thoughts about Google Wave, I’m also seeing a lot of consultants ask the same question, to see if I’m using Google Wave for any business/marketing use. Regardless, after spending a few days over the weekend to clean out my Google Wave inbox and do some research myself, I’m made a social bookmarking group of Google Wave resources. Also I recorded a video screen cast about how I’m using Google Wave now. Back to what are my thoughts on Google Wave and how I’m using it; here’s a list below.

• I think Google Wave will replace Gmail in the years to come
• I think Google Wave will be used by companies internally for communication and collaboration in the future
• I think Google Wave will be a part of Google’s social network that will include Google Reader
• I’m using Google Wave to collaborate on projects, where I upload files and brainstorm ideas in real-time with others
• I think Google Wave will become more popular to use for note taking at conferences
• I think Google Wave will be used to for training and webinars
• I think Google Wave will find use in the media / entertainment industry but I don’t know how yet besides communication or a commerce buy and sale music system
• I think Google Wave will become more social by integrating with Facebook and Twitter
• I think Google Wave will be used as a video chat solution
• I think Google Wave should be used with Google Chrome on Mac and windows for best performance.
• I think there’s a slim chance we’ll see a Google Wave/ Chrome gadgets/extensions app store or just all listed on Google Gadgets site
• I think I could be wrong about all of the above.
• I think it’s to early to put limits on Google Wave or predict all the uses for it.

If you’re new to Google Wave, I would start here: The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a comprehensive user manual by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

You can add me as a contact on Google Wave by entering: waynesutton@googlewave.com

Now, it’s your turn. What are your thoughts on Google Wave and how are you using it?