I think it is safe to say it is time for us all to look beyond the hype and to ignore the people pissing all over Wave and start to discover how we’ll use this new space.
CogDog talks about disappointment and even I got into a little Twitter sparring with Stephen Downes over what is/isn’t. I think we’ll know more and (a) more of us get account and (b) new extensions emerge that live on top of this platform. The piece quoted below starts the conversation that I think we need to continue to have.
Early users reported mixed feelings. But one month after Google Wave was opened to tens of thousands of people, how are people using it now? What use cases are being discovered? Let’s start with the education sector. We’ll explore other use cases in upcoming posts.
I’m less disappointed in the Wave technology than the way educators are reacting to it. 90% of the waves are see are waves about waves. People are mostly using it as some sort of river of stream free form conversation, that is in end, no different than other technology forms from listservs to twitter. I really don’t see much use of the real time collaboration.
I’m disappointed in crap pieces that put if wafer thin articles on things like “Wave as the future LMS.”
I’m disappointed that people are harping on the shortcomings of the current *interface* which is not Wave, but the first implementation of wave. Wave is what is underneath, and you’ve been at least one who is saying, “wait for the apps”. It’s the same as criticizing the first text web browser (which was not so great to use, I remember) but the foundation of the underlying HTTP protocol and the HTML construct of content.
I cant be “disappointed” in Wave cause I dont think I’ve really seen much of it, being a lot of meaningless froth on the surface.
And hey, while I am spraying around, I’m disappointed if you go to only short blog link shares! C’mon, the long form of the blog e.g. anything being 140 characters of “this is cool”) is the analysis layer we need. Go long(er), brother!
I hear you. I think it’ll emerge soon enough, but it isn’t quite obvious yet. I’d really like to give some of the ideas presented above a try in a real classroom … if the Wave is more open by Spring I’ll see if we can use it my CI 597 course.
As far as long v short form, I don’t see myself giving up the long form at all — just being more open to drop shorter items into this space to help me keep track of them over the long haul.