I don’t think the rest of my group really understood why I was so excited, but the fact was, I couldn’t wait to try Google Wave out to see how it would work with writing a group paper. I’ll tell you what I think of using Google Wave to write a group paper, but here are some things I’ve learned so far in the process:

1.) Lay Out Specific Rules and Guidelines

Everyone in my group had not used Google Wave before, so I quickly sent out invites after we received the assignment to get everyone signed up. There’s a particular novelty about Wave when you first get invited. You want to click around and give it a test drive.

This curiosity is all good, but for this project, I created the project wave, and at the beginning of the wave I not only welcomed everyone to the wave, but explained some goals for the wave, some guidelines, and some tips for new users. In the goals section, I wanted to answer: what’s the purpose of the wave? what’s desired from each participant? In the guidelines, I wanted to emphasis the importance of staying on topic, cleaning up the wave if needed, and advise against certain gadgets and extensions.

These rules or guidelines are pretty simple but I found that creating some focus to the wave helped everyone stay on topic, contribute, and have a productive conversation.

2.) Consider Meeting in the Same [Physical] Room

Our first group meeting met for a brainstorming section all circled up in a conference room in the library with each of us with our laptops logged into Wave. Now, I know Wave is set up to simulate the feeling that the conversation is live, but there was nothing quite like waving in the same room. We could not only add our ideas to the wave, but we could also openly discuss these ideas in the same room. We were not only interacting with ideas in a verbal way but we’re also seeing what we’re discussing on “paper.” There will never be anything like a face-to-face conversation; you can discuss more and cover more in a shorter period of time, but combining face-to-face with Wave was doubly powerful.

At the end of the meeting, we were also able to give everyone individual work going separately from the meeting. One person was responsible for developing and explaining one point while the other person had to do another and so on. Obviously, the beauty of doing this with Wave was that we could see this other person’s revisions while we are making our own revisions.

3.) There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Idea

As much as Google Wave is an information tool, it is also very much a creative tool. During our brainstorming meeting, we had to come up with ideas for research questions. All of our fields of study are far from research (for example, mine is music), so a lot of us knew hardly anything about crafting a good and effective research question.

We found it was extremely important to emphasize (even in the rules and guidelines) there’s no such thing as a bad idea. We wanted everyone to throw out and add to the wave whatever idea or question came to their mind even if it ended up being an useable question. Creativity is best fostered in a setting of openness. Even if you throw out a “bad idea,” this bad idea could lead someone to another idea, which leads to another idea, and so-on. There’s a refining process and this process never happens if no one is willing to take a risk.

4.) Separate Content as Much as Possible Into Blips

In all of our brainstorming and writing, it was really easy to quickly fill up a wave with a TON of information. It was also really easy to collect all of this information into only one blip. After awhile, the wave can become really hard on the eyes to look at. This became a big problem.

It’s important that you are always doing cleanup. Try to divide your content up into the smallest blips as possible in a way that makes sense. This way it’s easier to respond to an individual piece of content because it’s in its own blip rather than apart of a 1000-word blip.

Delete things you don’t need anymore. Remember the history of your wave is saved, so if you happen to need something you deleted, just go back and get it. Use bold, italics, underlining, highlighting, and heading tags in the best way possible to format your wave in a way that makes sense and is easy to follow.

5.) Experiment

Every group’s workflow is going to be a little bit different. You’ll have to see what works best for you and the type of project you are working on. Google Wave is a tool with many different possibilities for its use. There’s not necessarily one way to use it.

If you are a college professor, I would really recommend trying out Google Wave the next time you have your students do a group paper or something similar. It’s amazing how fast the work process is sped up (once you get the hang of it of course), and I found that a lot more ideas have the ability to come out since Google Wave gives you an easier way to voice these ideas.

I’ve done group papers for other classes and we’ll have to do it all in a Microsoft Word document and pass that through email one at a time so we can then each individually add our revisions and updates. And while on a Word document, our revisions can show up from each individual, before you can add anything more to the conversation, you have to wait till you have the latest version of the Word document from someone else. There is a lot of waiting with this process, whereas with Google Wave, you can start adding something as soon as the idea crosses your mind.

Right now, in our group project, we are beyond the brainstorming process and we’re starting to write the actual paper. It’s interesting to me also how fast we can write it when we are all working on it at the same time, in the same room, and verbally bouncing ideas off of each other. We were able to pound out a couple really quality pages in only a matter of minutes because we had discussed it and as we were writing it we could each give input into what was being written.

Have you used Google Wave yet in the academic setting or in a similar setting? What has been your experience?

And I wanted to ask you, based on your own areas of work, interests, and ideas, what creative, unique, or practical ways to use Google Wave have you come up with or used? I thought it’d be cool if we could start some sort of list.

1.) Songwriting

Originally, I got this idea from Bob Kauflin, in a post about a large collaborative songwriting project he did with his church music team. Aside from being a part-time internet geek, I’m also a musician and songwriter. It’s pretty common to collaborate and to co-write with other folks for some projects that I do. My brother also writes too, and often times we just send a bunch of emails back and forth with revisions and edits. The email copies quickly accumulate.

Google Wave ends up simplifying this back and forth process a bit easier. Plus, it’s helpful to be able to playback the wave to see what revisions were made and the original copies of the song. Songwriting has become a great way to use Google Wave.

2.) Emergency management and response

I hadn’t really thought of this until the tragic Haiti earthquake. This has prompted discussion on how Google Wave can be used as a tool to coordinate a rapid response to a natural disaster.

For example, one idea is that people could make updates on the map gadget with information from their point of view or any needs in that area. Google Wave might not be “beefy” enough to handle something on such a large scale like the Haiti earthquake. Right now, for the situation in Haiti, a lot of people are just using Wave to post information about the earthquake and how people can respond to it.

I imagine that even a smaller scale one way you could use Google Wave is to coordinate responses in your own community for volunteer projects or community service projects.

3.) Overseas business meetings

This was my girlfriend’s idea. She works with an advertising company that works pretty closely with Google and occasionally has to work with clients that are overseas. In this case, Google Wave allows you to collaborate instantaneously over long distances and not have to worry about communication barriers with the help of Aunt Rosy the translation bot and other tools.

If you wanted to, you could add voice chat into the wave conversation too. For example, Ribbit has created an app that can do this, and I’m sure many other companies and developers will be following suit too in the future.

4.) Planning your next family event

What about using wave to plan your next big family reunion and get together? For families that are spread out across the country, this might be a good option.

Simply add all your family members to the conversation and they’ll be able to confirm, give an estimated time of arrival, make plans, let each other know who will bring the casserole, make a map of the location, and any other detail you might need to discuss.

5.) Writing an academic paper

In my last year of college, with a group of two other people, we had to write a lengthy group paper in response to a case study dealing with a controversial ethical issue. Because the issue was so controversial, we had different opinions and views going into the paper. So it was hard to try to get all of our ideas and thoughts out on the table and then try to organize them in a paper. It was quite a pain to try to have to update a Word document with your ideas, save it, send the most recent version in an email to my group partners, and then make sure only one person is working on the document at a time.

All to say, if Google Wave were out then, our project would have went a lot quicker. I expect and would hope to see Google Wave being used more in academia.

6.) Plan a group trip

Say you’re going on a trip with three of your other close friends. You can’t decide where you want to go or when you want to go. You can use Google Wave as a way to share trip ideas, share pictures of locations, make a map and put some markers on it of places you want to visit, and make your very last minute plans.

You could even do this one in combination with planning your next family event.

7.) Coding

My Waver friend David Cook has been raving about using Google Wave for coding on his blog recently. While I personally haven’t tried it out, he swears it to be the best use for Google Wave right now. If you’re looking to give it a try yourself, Syntaxy is an extension that does syntax highlight for a variety of programming languages.

This is just a start. What are your ideas for using Google Wave or what ways have you used Google Wave?

Go ahead. Don’t be shy. Share them with us.

Despite these useful options for managing waves, people still seem to be a bit stumped about the basic function of deleting a wave. Well, the reason why you haven’t figured out how to “delete a wave” (in the most conventional sense) is because you can’t.

Why? What gives?

The basic design philosophy of Wave is the complete opposite of email. Waves are live, dynamic pieces of content that can be edited in realtime. Emails aren’t; you hit “Send” and that’s it.

Because of this philosophy, it’s not as easy as hitting the “Delete” button and be done with a wave. Why? Just because you delete a wave doesn’t mean that the same living wave still exists in somebody else’s Wave inbox. People are “linked” to waves, whereas emails are standalone messages.

Despite the inability to “delete” a wave, you can still delete individual pieces of content within a wave.

So… how do I get rid of this wave?

The closest thing to deleting a Wave is by taking two actions.

First, unfollow the wave. If anybody posts any more content in that wave, you won’t be notified of the changes (i.e. have an unread message).

Second, move the wave to the Trash. Trash is simply another folder. It cannot be emptied (which seems to be a major design flaw). If you’re viewing the All folder in Wave, items from the Trash will appear there.

This is as close as it gets to “deleting” a wave.

A Note from @doctorwave

Google seems to be aware of this issue and commented on the doctorwave Twitter with this tidbit of hope for frustrated users:

I understand where you’re coming from! Remove participant is coming quite soon (as long as all goes well)

Unfollow or Follow a wave

When you are added as a user to a wave or participate in a wave, you are set automatically to follow that wave. A followed wave is one that remains in your inbox and any updates to the wave are reflected in your inbox.

If you’re searching for public waves, and you find one that interests you, you can open that wave and read it without following the wave. In order to follow the wave you must have the wave opened and then click the “Follow” button in the toolbar of the wave.

When you unfollow a wave, you will not be updated of any changes to the wave and the wave no longer appears in your inbox. Simply click the “Unfollow” button in the toolbar.

You can still retrieve unfollowed waves by searching “is:unfollowed” in the search box.

Archive a wave

When you archive a wave, you choose to hide the wave from appearing in your inbox until there are new changes or additions to the wave. I’ve found archive most helpful when I don’t want to completely trash a wave but I want to get the wave out of my way since I’ve already looked at it.

To archive a wave, simply click the “Archive” button on the toolbar of the open wave.

Because an archived wave is hidden and doesn’t appear until their are any changes to the wave, it is not saved in anything like an archive folder. However,  you can find this wave at any time by either clicking the “All” link in your navigation panel or searching for the wave. An archived wave is not a deleted wave.

Trash a wave

Trash is designed for waves that you no longer care about but ones that you’re still listed as a participant. At the current moment, there is no way to remove yourself as a participant from a wave. Follow or unfollowed waves can be moved to the trash.

To move a wave to the trash, simply click on the “Trash” button on the toolbar of the open wave.

If you move a wave to the trash, the trashed wave will be hidden from your inbox, but you can always retreive any waves in the trash by clicking the “Trash” link in the navigation box.

At a first glance in Google Wave, you’ll notice there is a navigation box in the top left corner of the interface, a contacts list in the bottom left of the interface, a listing of waves in the middle of the interface, and to the very right of the interface, waves are displayed.

Make Your First Wave

If you click the “New Wave” button at the top of the middle column, a new wave will appear in the right column. At the top of the wave, there is a “+” sign right by your name. If you click this, you can add more participants to the wave.

In the wave, you can add rich-text, pictures, maps, and other media. You might want to learn some helpful hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts too.

If you’re at a loss for what you might use a wave for, you might:

• Plan an event
• Collaborate and brainstorm with other people for a project
• Take notes for a meeting

You can even add gadgets or extensions to your wave.

Install Some Gadgets or Play a Game of Sudoku

Gadgets or extensions are add-ons that add another layer of functionality to Wave. Admittedly, at this time in the preview, there aren’t many gadgets available. If you click on the settings link under navigation (or type in “with:settie” into the search box), an extension settings wave should appear listed. If you click on this, there are a few gadgets you can choose to install/uninstall including a yes/no gadget, maps, weather, and Sudoku.

Add Some Contacts & Edit Your Profile

Chances are the only person you have on your contacts list is the person who invited you to Google Wave. If you know anyone else on Wave, you’ll want to add them to your contacts list. Simply click on the “+” sign at the bottom of your contacts list.

You can also edit your profile and update your status. At the top of your contacts list, simply click on the picture or icon next to your name. A rectangle will pop and you can click the edit profile button to add your details. Underneath your name, you can also update your status.

Search for Public Waves

If you are brand new to Google Wave, it’s quite possible you don’t have many friends (or none at all) on Google Wave. And since you don’t yet have the chance to invite your friends to Wave with you, it can be a lonely world. However, don’t let this ruin your experience. You can find others in a similar position waving in public waves.

Anyone can create a public wave and anyone can join a public wave. Check it out for yourself.

Type in “with:public” to the search box and press enter.

A list of public waves will show up surrounding any topic imaginable. Some are other new wavers waving for the first time and others are joining in discussion the latest technology.

You can narrow down your search too. Say you only wanted to find public waves with cooking recipes. In the search box, you might type in: “with:public recipe” with the word “recipe” being the keyword you want to search for.

Some waves are tagged. Tags are like a label. They are a way to identify a wave. For example, say you wanted to search all public waves that are tagged with “Google Wave.” You can type in “with:public tag:google wave” into the search box.

Tweet

While Google Wave’s main purpose doesn’t seem to be to incorporate other social networking platforms into Wave (although it has the ability), you can even use Twitter with Google Wave.

These are just a few things to get your feet wet. What cool things have you discovered as you’ve messed around with Wave?

Google Wave changes the way people have communicated since the beginning of time

Think about it. How did the earliest civilizations communicate? Most of the time, it was a short message to a person, often taking weeks (or months) to get a response. Over several thousand years of course, we’ve arrived at our comfy idea of email.

But yet, there’s still an ancient concept that lies behind email: you send a message, wait for a response, send a reply, wait for a response, etc. Put quite simply, it’s just back-and-forth messaging, and the message’s just keep piling up. And this is how it’s been done since the beginning of time.

But Google Wave presents an alternative approach. Instead of responding to a whole message, just double-click and respond to part of it.  When you’re “waving” somebody else, you can see them typing their text word-for-word on your screen (no need to wait for them to hit “Send”). The biggest change is that Waves are dynamic instead of static emails.

The resistance to change

Imagine if somebody walked over to your workspace and completely rearranged it. What if somebody logged into your computer and reorganized your files in a foreign fashion?

You’d freak out.

You want your workspace and computer how you want it! Whenever something that we’re comfortable with changes, we naturally become a bit uneasy. No matter who you are, we all don’t like change to a certain extent (some more than others). Change inevitably interrupts the process in which we’ve become so familiar with.

The lack of understanding

Because we don’t like change, it gives us no incentive to want to understand what Google Wave is. That’s why it’s so hard to understand Google Wave. It’s easier to write it off and not give it a thought.

Like any other tool, Google Wave may or may not work for you and your workflow, but as we look at the future of the web (dubbed “web 3.0″), it’s quite possible that new methods of communication could exist within the new generation.

Will Google Wave replace email?

Some day it could. But based on what we’re seeing from Google thus far, I doubt Wave will replace email any time soon. Google, somewhat surprisingly, has not hyped Wave a lot. Sure, the tech community knows about it, but the average person probably doesn’t know about Wave. If Google were trying to replace email with an alternative technology, they’d have to launch a massive campaign (at least using more resources than they are using presently).

This leads me to believe that Wave is an experiment more than anything. Google knows that new forms of communication are emerging and perhaps they are presenting Wave as a concept of what communication could look like in the future.

Could Wave replace email? Sure. In the near future? No — that’d take some time.

If Google Wave still has you stumped, keep an open mind; Wave’s evolution may be more interesting than you might like to think.

Fast forward more than 40 years later and meet Google Wave. The team behind Google Wave describes it as “what email would look like if it were invented today.” Unlike email, users are able to communicate and collaborate with one another in real-time with text, photos, videos, and much more.

But what does this all even really mean?

Meeting Google Wave For the First Time

When you send an email to someone and they respond back to you, multiple copies of the email are sent, stored, and received. If you continue this conversation, the copies of this email quickly accumulate in your and the other person’s inbox and other folders. Google Wave’s solution is too eliminate multiple copies of a conversation into one live document known as a “wave.”

Multiple users can be added to a wave. Again, rather than CC’ing multiple people in an email (thus creating even more copies of the email), a group of people can participate and collaborate in one central conversation.

Any changes made to a wave are updated in real-time. So that means if I am participating in a wave with Jenny and Tim, and they are online the same time I’m online, if I add text to the wave, they see my typed additions letter-for-letter as I’m typing them.

If Jenny or Tim wanted, they could respond directly inline to what I wrote, add to, or even edit what I wrote. They could also add a video, photo, map, or other extensions to the wave. If they wanted to be updated on the revisions of the wave, they could play back the wave from the start of its creation to its present state.

Google Wave Seems So Confusing

My first experience with Google Wave was quite a bit confusing and intimidating. I’ve heard this has been a similar experience for others too.

Although Google Wave was partly inspired by a desire to create “the future of email,” it can’t quite be compared to email for the reason that rather than sending and receiving a email you are actually participating in a conversation centralized to one live document. Yet, at the same time, you can’t quite compare Wave to a Word document because it functions as a live conversation of sorts and not a static document.

All to say, Google Wave tends to be confusing because it’s hard to pin-point where exactly Wave fits in since it is so different. Yet this is exactly what makes Wave so appealing.

It’s true that Wave isn’t fully finished yet and is still in the works. Surely it is rough around the edges and needs some work. It’ll be interesting to see if it has the power to shape the way we communicate like email did 40 years ago.

If you are interested in giving it a try, you can sign-up to be invited to preview it here.