Will Google Wave replace forums?

[SeanHannifin]

Hard to really explain what it is... it's a bunch of things put together... it's like real-time forums, e-mail, instant messaging, and a wiki... and yet different from all those. Looks very interesting!! :)

http://wave.google.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

Wonder if it will replace forums? (I think it might.)

[rwayland]

Well, it looks to me like a grand advance for hackers and phishers, and an invitation for all sorts of invasive activity. But perhaps I am just a SOF.

Richard

[rbowser-]

Thanks for the alert, Sean - I didn't play all of the feature length 1 hr 20 vid of the Google conference (!!) But looked at the other pages of info, and it looks great to me. Hope they can iron out the remaining issues. I'm not all that technoid, so am not interested in helping to develop it or to do much if an customization with Wave, but to have a collaboration tool that works smoothly would be very helpful.

As a member of ASCAP, I've been trying to use their eSession which is designed for composers to collaborate on projects together. Unfortunately, the last update of Firefox made the site no longer compatible with me. ESession is basically a storage area for text, audio files, sequencer data, all neatly tabbed, and "Virtual Glass" is also available for live vid conferencing on a project. But the whole eSession site seems to need more working out - and even though it's still functioning for me on IE, I prefer to use Firefox when I'm online.

Wave could be more than a replacement for eSession - it looks like it could end up improving on the online collab concept. Looks promising!

Randy

[wrayer]

Looks really interesting, but I haven't figured out facebook yet, this is way beyond me - I guess I am too old!

Best regards,
Bill

[BenNichols]

"Will Google Wave replace forums?"

Nope, too complicated for people.

[rbowser-]

--Too complicated. I didn't anticipate that reaction. Interesting. Collaborating online can be a messy business dealing with emails, posting files somewhere online, fetching them, using multiple apps to create documents, uploading, mixing and matching etc - I think for people used to having to work that way, something like this would be much Less complicated. But it's not as if everyone collaborates online--Looks like this is aimed at those kind of users.

Randy

[SeanHannifin]

Exactly! I think it will uncomplicate things, because it will be all you need to do any sort of online communication you want.

I don't think it will replace forums right away. But, if it catches on (and I think it will), I think it would drastically reduce the need for one. Or, to put another way, it will morph what we now call a "forum" into something else where we all have more control and which connects to all the other things we use (email, blogs, twitter, facebook, etc).

Probably way too early to tell how it will change things like forums and blogs, but to me it definitely looks like it has the power to...

[AlanPerkins]

Too complicated?? I doubt it!

You can use sequencers, samplers and notation software with reverbs, eqs, compression etc and yet real time collaborative tools are too complicated?

This is going to revolutionise the way communication is done. The true paradigm shift came with the introduction of Google Docs (and their ilk) - this is just a refinement of that, but the majority of pundits will see this as over the line, just like the world wide web was what pushed the Internet truly into the main stream.

This is a very cool development.

I am sure some people thought the telephone was too complicated at first too.

[dudefromthebronx]

Never! Google is evil. The coming Antichrist will use Google to lead the masses astray. He shall use Google to lure them away from the Almighty Lord and they shall be required to type the username and password of the Beast to logon.

But feareth not, O faithful ones, for there shall be a new tech startup who shall be called Trinity Consultants, and they shall provide an alternative to the Internet domain of the Evil One, so that those who remain faithful and true shall be delivered from the him that dwelleth in the shadows! And they shall lift up their modems and rejoice, for NONE IS GREATER THAN THE ALMIGHTY!! PRAISE THE LORD, FOR HE COMETH WITH GREAT BANDWIDTH AND DOWNLOAD SPEED, AND SHALL SMITE THAT ROARING LION!! WITH A GLORIOUS, REDESIGNED GRAPHICAL INTERFACE, HE SHALL TAKE HOLD OF THAT HORRIFIC DRAGON BY HIS HORNS AND SHOUTETH "I CAST THEE OUT, O UNCLEAN SPIRIT!!!! BE GONE FROM THE SERVER OF GOD, AND ALL THY TROJANS AND WORMS THAT SLITHER UPON THE EARTH AND TORMENT MY CREATION!!!!")(~

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're safe.

[NeoDavinci]

I think people will be stunned at how quickly Google Wave takes off for forum environments. Think about the possibilities here. it not only keeps the conversation in a much more functional order, it does so with real time chat capability, and all on open source software—no chat dongle or anything!

[Steve_Karl]

In my opinion it'll never replace a moderated forum because it will not be able to be moderated at a rate to keep up with potential problems.

[mdevelde]

I think it can.
Forum software can incorperate google wave.
Requiring both google wave account with anti bot registration etc, and seperate forum registration.
And instead of the moderator reading everything one could make a simple button that reports malicious activity to the moderator.
A person can then be banned, or put under moderated status where their messages must be aproved by moderators first before they're included or something like that.
Also since google allows total customization and added functionality to be written by third parties, if there's a problem for a certain aplication (like for use in forums) it should be easily fixed.
I think in a year time there's a good chance no forum software can do without google wave functionality.

[LFO]

Google Wave is such a shift in how one thinks about communication that it is hard to determine what it's influence will be. It will have a huge influence, no doubt. The product itself will cause much of it, but like Firefox the most significant changes will be from the developers who create extensions to the product. Who knows what cool ideas are already in development?

I believe Google Wave will not only change forums, it will change the way we think about forums, email, IM, content sharing, collaboration and so on. I would love to see how we can use Google Wave to replace standard corporate email systems, (Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange) or minimally cause change in them in the same way Firefox forced Internet Explorer to change.

I'm really looking forward to the release of Wave. It is going to be a blast!

-Kevin

[AlanPerkins]

Google Wave is such a shift in how one thinks about communication that it is hard to determine what it's influence will be. It will have a huge influence, no doubt. The product itself will cause much of it, but like Firefox the most significant changes will be from the developers who create extensions to the product. Who knows what cool ideas are already in development?

I believe Google Wave will not only change forums, it will change the way we think about forums, email, IM, content sharing, collaboration and so on. I would love to see how we can use Google Wave to replace standard corporate email systems, (Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange) or minimally cause change in them in the same way Firefox forced Internet Explorer to change.

I'm really looking forward to the release of Wave. It is going to be a blast!

-Kevin

I Absolutely Agree