the Google "wave" is here...

[MichaelM]

...yes, the choice of words for the subject line was meant to get your attention.
The "wave" is here, the Google Wave that is.

The following are links with more info about Google Wave:
_http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html
this page is a rough description of what Google Wave is

_http://www.waveprotocol.org/Home
this page discusses the more technical aspects of it, in particular the protocol

_http://code.google.com/apis/wave/
another technical page dealing with the APIs

From the brief perusal, the Google Wave is a new tool that incorporates document sharing with conversations (think "chat") and can also make use of the other Google apps (Google Maps, etc.)
There should be some videos of demonstrations of the Google Wave.

Anyway, to get to my point, I was surprised to find out about Google Wave after perusing the forums and finding the Cassiopaean transcripts for 2009 May 30. In particular, the "cliffhanger" part:

Q: (L) In other words, there's no hope for our planet or our species if normal human beings do not come together and get over these varied pathological belief systems and religions and "your truth" and "my truth" and all that sort of thing?

A: Yes. All of that was created and spread by pathological types under the influence of their hyperdimensional masters for the purpose of turning this planet into a "hell on earth" with them as the masters. They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. What is needed is for many people to begin to make direct connections with their higher centers. This has been done via the "work" up to now, but there are other methods to accelerate the process and obtain the needed assistance.

Q: (L) For example?

A: Stay tuned. Next time. Goodbye.

(emphasis mine)

And when I found out about Google Wave this morning in my inbox, the bolded line above jumped into my head. Well, that and "the Wave" as the Cassiopaeans use it in the transcripts.
Maybe some of the more web-tech savvy people on this forum or working on the sott pages might be able to leverage this technology to accelerate the process (of exposing people to the truth?) and/or obtain needed assistance (via additional networking through the Google Wave apps?).

I am aware of the anti-Google bias because of the search engine rankings and subtle "censoring" (via non-exclusion in search results or very low rankings in search results) but then again, as they say, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater"...

It is supposed to be "open source" but then Google does the reviews before including user-written code (a patch) into the main code and then you have to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA).
More info about that here: _http://www.waveprotocol.org/wave-community-principles

 

[MichaelM]

I forgot to add...
I found out about the wave through an email subscription about tech news that had the following link:
_http://www.embedded.com/217700833?cid=NL_embedded

It has more of an overview of what Google Wave is and some video links to a Google Wave presentation.

 

[foofighter]

I just had a look at the Google Wave demo video, as I was asked by my team to investigate whether we could integrate it in our own software products. From a purely user-point of view it seems like a good idea. The level of interaction and collaboration that you can achieve with it is pretty amazing. Technically, being so event-oriented is an interesting design trend in the industry right now, and it reminds me of the EEQT theories, where there is also a focus on observers and events.

The main caution I would have with it is that it if you assume a nasty world where Google cannot be trusted, then there is the obvious problem that most Wave collaborations are going to usually go through Google's servers, which becomes an excellent harvesting point for information about users. If you're using email that is somewhat harder to do, except NSA is intercepting literally all internet traffic anyway, so Google Wave would only make it easier to track conversations, rather than changing something fundamentally.

Another caution would be related to the product manger's "slipup" during the presentation, that one of the main ideas besides communication is to create addictive, interactive, collaborative games. In other words, distraction extraordinaire.

 

[anart]

The main caution I would have with it is that it if you assume a nasty world where Google cannot be trusted, then there is the obvious problem that most Wave collaborations are going to usually go through Google's servers,

At this point in 'time', I think this is more than an assumption. Google cannot be trusted, but all internet traffic is tracked, it is just that Google does it very, very well and provides it directly to those who require it.

Another caution would be related to the product manger's "slipup" during the presentation, that one of the main ideas besides communication is to create addictive, interactive, collaborative games. In other words, distraction extraordinaire.

Sounds like yet another something to be avoided at all costs.

 

[Mark]

The main caution I would have with it is that it if you assume a nasty world where Google cannot be trusted, then there is the obvious problem that most Wave collaborations are going to usually go through Google's servers, which becomes an excellent harvesting point for information about users.

Like Facebook on steroids and crack.

 

[foofighter]

The main caution I would have with it is that it if you assume a nasty world where Google cannot be trusted, then there is the obvious problem that most Wave collaborations are going to usually go through Google's servers, which becomes an excellent harvesting point for information about users.

Like Facebook on steroids and crack.

Well, that's one way to put it. Another facet of this is that Facebook is mainly used by individuals, whereas I think it is pretty clear that Google Wave is not only targeted at consumers, but also companies, as with Google Apps (spreadsheet, document, etc.). When you have most of your internal company discussions going on through Google Wave, that becomes an obvious harvesting point, both for "national security" purposes and for purely commercial reasons, such as targeted ads/products.