One of the things that we see asked time and time again with Google Buzz having been launched this week is, “Will Buzz be just another Google Wave?” Sure enough, there seems to be relatively little prominent use of Google’s post-mail client, but that could well be because those who are using Wave are doing so in a fairly quiet, out of the way fashion; Wave is not, by nature, a very public affair.

We like to call it Google Dave

Still, it seems that the vast majority of users who have criticised Google Wave for a total lack of activity have done so after first checking their Wave account (often for the first time after a period of protracted absence) and realised that there was nothing there to demand their attention; it’s very much the same thing as checking an email account you haven’t used in months and expecting it to contain messages for you…

Still, there are those who seem to have found a use for Google Wave outside of the norm, and for those of us who’ve been using it, it’s become a fairly invaluable tool.

Take Notes:

Among the most impressive things I encountered during a recent class on web-based technologies by Mulley Communications[http://mulley.ie/] was a use to which Google Wave was being put by two other attendees sitting in front of me. Indeed, so compelling was this use of Google Wave that it became difficult to focus on much else.

Wave is being seen as increasingly useful for conferences

Essentially, all that was going on was note-taking inside Google Wave, nothing so very shocking about that; it’s a relatively simple arrangement, and one that might even be better handled in Google Docs, given the different formatting options that Google Docs offers. Still, there were some enormous benefits to having multiple editors to a single document in real time, especially when someone is speaking and giving off-the-cuff advice.

It allows for multiple users to be crawling through a document at once, taking minutes on a meeting or adding actions to a to-do list or calendar in real time, with any user present editing those notes as necessary, as the whole document is being written. In the case of events like these, it means that users can also pose questions within a Wave and have them answered there, meaning there’s less interruption to the general flow of a talk, lecture or meeting.

It also means that everyone is equally responsible for curating the notes, ensuring that, by the time everyone leaves, there is an up to date, web-based document available that can contain just about everything that was discussed in a particular context. Moreover, since it’s relatively easy to do so, users can later convene and question elements of those notes within the same Wave, leading to a more active engagement with a topic…

After a little looking around, it seems that I wasn’t the only one so impressed by Wave’s collaborative editing in this kind of a setting, and it seems that Ecomm Conference is doing something very similar indeed.

It might seem simple to some, or a little far fetched organisationally to others, but it was interesting stuff to see at work. One can only wonder how well a similar operation might be run by more users at once… Certainly it seems there’s an upward limit (Wave itself really chugs with more than 100 users in one Wave), but it’s a curious use nonetheless.

KISS:

There are a few very simple internet acronyms that haven’t quite found their way into day-to-day use but we feel should. The first is PICNIC (problem in chair, not in computer) and will likely be a welcome addition to anyone who’s become a family-tech-support figure’s vocabulary.

Shopping lists and similar benefit surprisingly well from collaboration

The second is KISS (“keep it simple, stupid” for the uninitiated). The fact is that the best uses for Google Wave are probably the ones that aren’t the vastly complex projects like the ever-impressive and increasingly referenced projects for people playing role playing games through it, while those projects are impressive in their own right.

Instead, the simple, real-time core of Google Wave lends itself very well to behaving as a kind of persistent chat client. It’s the single most common use to which I’ve seen Google Wave put, and the one from which I’ve seen most use myself; invite any geographically distant family members and just have a general chatter, a conversation that just flows with the people who happen to be present for it at a given time, but which stores everything for back-reading by anyone not present.

In the same vein, it makes a fairly solid case for itself as a very simple around-the-house tool for things like to-do lists and shopping lists. Again, it’s as easy as inviting everyone in the house and just getting into the habit of keeping an eye on the Wave to see what’s needed.

Gaming:

While we might be a little dubious given the sheer complexity involved, the fact is that, for those who are into RPGs, Wave is a fairly powerful tool indeed. While we’ve seen a fair few pieces written on the idea of using Google Wave to play RPGs, fairly few get into the nitty gritty.

With over 1,000 members, the RPG-centric gaming Wave is going very well indeed

The best place for anyone with an interest to start would be on the public Wave for people looking to play a game. As the folks at Mashable point out there’s a wave out there that was created to list all the RPGs…

There are, at the time of writing, around 1,050 people sitting in that Wave, so you can get some impression of the popularity it’s managed to gain for itself. It’s a relatively simple affair to get yourself involved in a game, but once you’re there things start to get a little more complicated.

First, you’ll be expected to join two Waves for most games; the first is a simple “in-game” Wave, while the second is an informal “table chatter” one, where players can keep up with each other outside that context. There’s also the suggestion that individual players start new Waves as and when appropriate for new conversations or settings where other players might not be aware of their doings.

Clearly, gaming is something that could very quickly start to eat up some serious space in your Wave inbox, but given the fact that tabletop RPG fans seem to be spread very thin indeed (in Ireland especially) it seems like the use of Wave for gaming could go down very well.

If you’d like to investigate the way RPGs work in Google Wave with a view to giving it a go yourself then you’d do very well to check out this blog post, which outlines all of the various different Wave Robots and Gadgets you’ll need to add to get everything going as neatly as possible and without too much fuss.

Closing:

So, is Google Wave the game-changer that Google persuaded so many it would be in its original presentations early last year? Not yet, but it’s certainly a very interesting piece of kit, and one whose uses will only multiply as it gains more features. We’re particularly curious to see what impact automatic translation has on Wave’s userbase.

Hopefully Google Wave won't be like this forever...

It’s interesting stuff, and the fact is that Wave has managed to make itself useful for a few bits and pieces at which email simple doesn’t excel. For many, the real question will be, “Would you rather just ‘make do’ with email or grab hold of Wave and give it a solid go?”

So far, we’re enjoying it… it’s just a matter of getting enough invitations to make sure everyone you want on a particular project has an account, but once you’ve done that, it’s not so bad a thing at all.