Classmate Mickey Phillips and I have played around for the better part of this week trying to become familiar with using the Google Wave program. When we've both been online at the same time we've sent messages back and forth to each other in near real time.Its most interesting to watch the person with whom you are "waving" start typing a response to a message that you are just about to complete. But it works just fine that way. When we weren't online at the same time any messages would be waiting for us when we next opened Google Wave. No need to download them. They are available at almost the instant they are prepared. But if a mistake is noticed, or an additional point needs to be made, just open the message for editing and make the correction or add the additional info.
Google Wave is a very versatile way for folks to stay in touch with others. Based on the things Mickey and I have done this week I'm confident that anyone who can email can use Google Wave for that purpose. In fact, I read that Google is considering integrating their email program and Google Wave sometime next year.
One of the things Mickey finds especially to his liking is the ability to add photos to a Wave and then view the photos inside Wave as a slide show, or as individual photos. Others who see the wave can view or download the photos easily. Mickey said that makes sharing photos a lot easier than putting a lot of photos in a zip file for emailing.
Using some of the more powerful capabilities of Google Wave takes more user effort than using it like email. But the best way to learn to do some of those other things is to give them a try. One of the promised features I'm interested in trying is posting articles directly from Google Wave to the Blog. I'll be interested to see how that feature works when its ready to use. The program has possible uses way beyond emailing and posting to the blog but I don't know enough about them at this time to pass along any details.
If anyone in the class gets, or already has, a Google Wave account do get in touch. I can add you to the Wave articles that Mickey and I have created. You can then read the articles, contribute to them if you wish, and hopefully profit from our mistakes. Laughing at us as we stumble along the way is also an option. <grin>
