Google Wave Redux

[Orchard]

I am not lucky enough to have access to google wave.

Two questions:

For those that do, what are your impressions now that you've had access for a bit. Are you actually using it?

Second, do any of you people have a spare invite?

Thanks.

[barinax]

Orchard,

PM me your gmail e-mail address and I can invite you.

I don't use it too much simply because it is not very wide spread at the moment and, if you are not a part of a big group discussion there isn't much going on.

As far as the technology goes, you can do some really cool things with it and I look forward to when it is more largely utilized.

[Orchard]

I want to thank Barinax for the invite, and now that I'm onboard, I get to figure out what's going on.

I would love to send out invitations to others, but I have some people outside this board that I will probably want to invite.

Maybe.

[barinax]

I want to thank Barinax for the invite, and now that I'm onboard, I get to figure out what's going on.

I would love to send out invitations to others, but I have some people outside this board that I will probably want to invite.

Maybe.

If they are still handing out invites, you will probably get some after you have been signed up for a while.

[Orchard]

I want to thank Barinax for the invite, and now that I'm onboard, I get to figure out what's going on.

I would love to send out invitations to others, but I have some people outside this board that I will probably want to invite.

Maybe.

If they are still handing out invites, you will probably get some after you have been signed up for a while.

It tells me I have 8 right now.

[barinax]

I want to thank Barinax for the invite, and now that I'm onboard, I get to figure out what's going on.

I would love to send out invitations to others, but I have some people outside this board that I will probably want to invite.

Maybe.

If they are still handing out invites, you will probably get some after you have been signed up for a while.

It tells me I have 8 right now.

Cool. It took over a month to get my 1st invites after I signed up.

[Rumble]

I am not lucky enough to have access to google wave.

Two questions:

For those that do, what are your impressions now that you've had access for a bit. Are you actually using it?

Second, do any of you people have a spare invite?

Thanks.

I have 20 or so unused invites, but it sounds like you're covered.

I was in the Developer Preview, and was one of the original Preview crowd, and after a couple months of intense use, working not only with the tool but with developing applications for it (I wrote Random Lee Twenty, a dice roller), I have no real interest in it anymore.

Technically, the interface is tolerable, but not great; performance is likewise. Of course, it's not even a beta (though...google rides "beta" like a rented mule). There is a lot of functionality that is just missing, and I don't mean things that could be explained as "it's a preview", but stuff I would have expected them to hammer out before they let anybody look at it outside of Google itself. It has stability problems, but again, it's still "Preview."

Use-wise - and I can only speak from my own viewpoint, about the things I do - there's nothing I do that Wave helps me do better. All of the things I do - art, writing, work, coding, conversation - are all better handled by other tools. Other people have different experiences - if you spend a lot of time collaborating on short documents, it might be very useful.

Bottom line for me is that I don't see any compelling use for it. I check it every week or so to see if anyone has trouble with Random Lee Twenty, but otherwise, it's a non-starter for me.

[jay]

I'm a little underwhelmed by it too. We do use it off and on. It makes for a good way have discussions about DM rulings and house rules. But we just use it like you would a forum. We have also embedded a google spreadsheet doc to keep up on character XP as well, but that could be done just as easily with email. So really what it comes down to is a conglomeration of all of the ways available to talk to one another already on the net: email, forum, blog, wiki. It seems even the bots could be created by just adding tools to your wiki or forum.

[Notsonoble]

Thread Necromancy!

Has anyone played with wave recently... I got a notice about some changes... but it looks the same (aside from not being quite so sluggish)...

Edit: This is interesting... wonder how I missed it...
http://googlewave.blogspot.com/2010/07/ ... -live.html

[Rumble]

My opinion remains much the same. I'm trying to use it as a collaborative doc to track some adventures I'm running right now; it's mostly just me writing stuff at this point (no real interaction). Given that, something like Obsidian Portal is better (since it's a more static "recap" than an ongoing game). I'm also part of a couple discussion waves and I find that for me, it's actually really hard to follow discussions using Google Wave, especially if you're trying to catch up, and the playback feature is not the answer.

Performance is much improved; the interface is marginally improved (they allow you to remove people from a wave now); and hey have a few "pre-fab" wave setups, to help focus the use a bit. Otherwise, it's more or less the same.

Google hasn't gotten over their fascination for watching other people type, though.

[jfrazierjr]

Agree with Rumble. Context really sucks if your trying to play catch up after there are a large number of comments and replies, scattered throughout the wave. Playback helps, but feels... "wrong"...

[dragonlady]

I've been part of a group that have been playing traveller (both Mongoose and Classic) for over 6 months now. We started out with non-realtime group, that is still going and then we added a Saturday Realtime group also.

Both groups are going strong. We developed some conventions to make the game go well. Mostly what it is, is collaborative story telling. We set up two wave, one the main story line, the other for OCC. GMs have multiple thread of back ground material (the setting, planets, character profiles.).

Have to say, that for that format is has been GREAT.

[dorpond]

I just got a Roku box and I was looking through some of the channels. While I don't have the exact channel with me atm, they claimed that Google is saying bye bye to Wave.

But I did search it for you all, so here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/ ... -wave.html

[neofax]

Only to resurrect as the Novell:Pulse.

[aliasmask]

<on a side note>Corp-speak should be it's own language

"Well, Pulse leverages Novell's expertise and experience developing enterprise collaboration and communication tools, as well as industry leadership in creating strong identity and security management solutions. We bring these competencies together to give your enterprise the confidence to exercise real-time collaboration technologies."

</on a side note>