Eureka! Google Wave

Google is working on some seductively simple but powerful collaboration and conversation models that could have an enormous impact on how people will communicate and collaborate in the future. Watching the video of the developers introducing Google Wave was one of those epiphany moments that happen only a few times in a career. If this platform is embraced and adapted broadly, Google Wave could be profoundly transformative. Given its open source underpinnings and public/extensible API model, this scenario is plausible.

New Models, New Applications

Google Wave has the potential to spawn all sorts of new applications, markets, industries; transform eGovernment services; and introduce new models of learning and sharing.

In the mid-term it could disrupt the business models of existing dedicated applications that run on a hosted basis (e.g., Evite, and a number of 37Signals’ current services, like BaseCamp and BackPack – just to name a few). Having said that, Google plans to offer a number of methods so developers can “hook into” legacy communication protocols, which could extend the life of established applications.

I love the way the Google team has dared to challenge today’s linear and incoherent email/IM/SMS/tweet conversational model. Google Wave could replace that construct with a more fluid, multi-person, live concurrent edited conversation model. Each conversation can be “played back” to show how the thinking evolved, or displayed in the conversation’s current more structured and coherent version. (I loved the yes-no-maybe widget as a construct for aggregating people’s intentions – and allowing them to change their mind.)

Wave-enabled conversations can be embedded in the environments that people prefer, including blogs, wikis, email-like systems, etc. – whatever is most contextually relevant for the situation. The key is that everything runs in the cloud…

The Google Wave platform/approach can also be applied to:

• documents produced collaboratively (reinventing wikis in the process)
• forms filled out collaboratively (think: Boomer daughters helping parents with medical forms, insurance claims, health records, etc.)
• trip and event planning
• polls, surveys and quizzes
• conversations that need to take place among people who don’t speak a common language (thanks to “Rosie the robot” language translator) – imagine what this might do to diplomatic efforts, or cross-border trade!
• conversations or documents whose participants work concurrently on PCs, Macs, iPhones (and of course Android phones)
• “federated conversations and documents” whose creators or participants work for different organizations, subject to compliance requirements that demand real attention to how information is shared or disclosed across corporate boundaries – imagine what this might to to M&A transactions!
• multi-dimensional customer support or pre-sales interactions

A Simple Real-life Example

My 6 siblings and I are jointly planning our mother’s 80th birthday party. We’re trying to keep our father involved, but not burdened with the details. We live in 3 time zones and 5 states, use different email systems, mobile phone networks, and have no common server or email server. We have varying degrees of technical sophistication, so today’s hosted services are too off-putting. (I’ve tried to propose this approach before, and failed.) It’s almost impossible to convene a real-time phone call because the demands of our extended families and work lives are too time-consuming. Hence email as the sole planning vehicle we can all tolerate.

Speaking for myself, my event planning emails have landed on 3 different computers, so there’s no coherence across the thread. It’s hard to tell when decisions have been reached, or changed, or where to find the details about logistics. When I think of the time and effort we’re expending on something that should be simple, I wish we could be planning this event and the related family reunion in a “wave.”  (Sadly, the event will probably be over and done with before Google releases this technology.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention: we’re sharing stories, photos, and other memory objects that will be consolidated into some sort of a memory book that my mother can share for “bragging rights” with her friends. And yes, there are some recent digital family movies, but no one has proposed introducing them into the media mix, thank goodness.

Now imagine this simple example applied to a business conference or high-stakes event with lots of stakeholders and participants. The mind boggles.

Other Eureka Moments

Seeing Google Wave reminds me of the first time I saw a perfectly round circle being printed on an Apple laser printer – and realized that this would enable typographic renderings, line art, cartoons, illustrations: many of the key elements required to transform the publishing industry, architecture, engineering, and so on. Previously, printers hooked up to PCs could only reproduce circles with jagged edges; only people with enormous patience (or HP employees) would plug in a color plotter to produce circles, pie charts, etc. – completely impractical for everyday office use, let alone publishing at scale.

As simple as it now seems, the ability to reproduce circles and non-jaggy objects has changed everything in the 20+ years since I first saw that LaserWriter with Postscript. This was a key catalyst that ignited the retooling of entrenched industries, transforming them from analog to digital assets and processes.

An equally profound Eureka moment was the first time I used VisiCalc, and realized people would no longer be hostage to calculators. Or the first time I used email, 30 years ago.

Ten years from now we’ll look back, and marvel over the many changes that Google Wave made possible. Things we can’t even imagine now.

I look forward to surfing that wave…

Tagged as: Google Wave, innovation, new markets