In the wake of widespread disappointment surrounding Google Wave, an open discussion at Social Media Cafe Manchester helped to put the technology into focus and answer many of the questions posed by it's critics.
Sat in the Manchester Bar in the BBC, Oxford Road, we waited with bated breath to see if any major revelations would come to the fore. Initially we were disappointed. There were many people in the audience who simply hadn't used Google Wave, or who had at best merely dabbled. So much of the first twenty minutes were spent explaining how it works, and getting input from the audience as to it's downsides. People discussed the incredibly slow speed, the frustrating scroll bars, the difficulty in navigating long multi-contributor Waves and many more 'detail' gripes, adeptly hosted by Lexusperplexus, @lexplex_ (apologies, not sure of his real name)
However all of the above are distracting from the concept. There were two particular figures in the audience last night who shed much light on the subject. One worked for the BBC (Ian Forrester, @cubicgarden), and the other was a developer (Paul Robinson, @p7r) who had been involved in the beta stage of Google Wave. Between them they explained quite clearly that Wave is the technology, and that Google Wave as we know it is merely a preview of how the technology might work.
It was admitted that the interface is far too clunky, that it is not intuitive, and that by rights it has been released to a confused audience far, far too early, leading to misinterpretation and apathy. Had Google have waited maybe a year or two longer, and launched a slicker product, with a clearer description of it's purpose, maybe the audience at large would 'get it'.
But it was in the answering of two questions that perspective was finally found. Firstly, and most importantly was the revelation that Wave is a technology that is not specific to Google, but that will in time be used via a range of 'Wave' clients - much in the same way we use email now, ie through Outlook or Apple Mail etc. And secondly, once this is in place, the performance speed of a Wave will be much improved as it will no longer mean every Wave going into and out of Google's servers, rather it will utilise local servers as we are used to with email and the internet now.
With this in mind we can now see clearly how Google's Wave interface is simply a vehicle in it's infancy, designed to show us how digital communication and collaboration will be in the very near future.
I suspect that much of the confusion has arisen from Google's desire to be 'first to the party', and to hide the fact that the technology is not exclusive to Google. Understandable from a business point of view, but given the poor response it's had I think Google would have benefited from a more transparant approach...
Andy Chesters