December 27, 2009 59 Comments

Tips for Google Wave

Collaborating With Wave As I’m getting more and more into using Google Wave, I’m coming to appreciate its collaborative value. The only way that I’m using it right now is as follows: I come up with an idea. I want another opinion about the idea. I write it up in Wave. I share it with others and get them to collaborate with me.

There might be other ways to be using it. You might be hosting weekly chats and/or writing blogs in there, or whatever. That’s all swell. So far, the way that I’m using it differently than email (because NO, I don’t feel it’s a replacement for email – at least not in its current state), is in collaborating on something fluid that will eventually be static.

What’s worked well for me, so far, is as follows.

Tips for Google Wave

Folders

  • Make two or three “sections” inside the wave, making the “main body” section the “top” one, where all the “official” work goes on.
  • Make the “second” section of the wave be the “chat” section, where you talk back and forth “outside” the document.
  • Make the “third” section of the wave be the “scratch” section, where you keep bits of ideas.
  • Use folders heavily.
  • Use tags heavily.
  • Keep collaboration down to a few people (too many cooks, that sorta thing).

In this method, I’m working on planning out my new business, working on a new book with Julien, and a few other projects. I did a few proposals with Justin for New Marketing Labs that way, too.

And You?

What’s worked well for you so far?

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  • Pingback: Tips for Google Wave http://bit.ly/8RpcXf « Svartling

  • http://gigantico.squarespace.com GigantiCo

    I suggest you talk to @TishShute of UgoTrade, or Thomas Wrobel. They are using Google Wave / Wave Federation Protocol as a platform for Semantic/Geolocation Augmented Reality.

  • http://twitter.com/Chewie33 Mathieu Ayel

    Google Wave worked really well in my family to discuss ideas for presents before Christmas: we shared pictures for the gifts ideas and then chatted around them in real time. It makes a very good magic collaborative Santa list!

  • gmintchell

    Thanks for the ideas. Some of my colleagues are using it as family collaboration right now. I'd love to use it to form ideas for the magazine I edit. It needs to spread a little more to my contacts first, though.

  • http://www.ribeeziemedia.com/blog Ricardo Bueno

    I never really gave the idea of using Google Wave a shot. I'm not entirely sure why, I just didn't. Then, @StaceySoleil tuned me into it last night. She created a wave with a couple of us and we tinkered around for a bit. We chatted, we shared files, etc. It was mostly a test more than anything. Here's what I walked away with:
    - I think it makes a great long-term collaborative tool. (I still need to find ways to keep things structured and I agree that having too many people creates chaos – too many voices carrying over each other).

    I work with my designers to build websites and with a few other team members to strategize over content, marketing over the long-term. For the most part, we use Basecamp to manage client projects and Google Docs for the latter. I'm still looking for areas where Google Wave might fit. For now, that's a work in progress…

  • http://paulswansen.com paulswansen

    Twitter Wave has been interesting, in a minor way. I've participated in a few waves created locally. It's more functional than Twitter or FaceBook, due to the content you can produce. However until Google gets the presence dots working so that you can truly work with folks at any time, it will only be a data gathering point.

  • biz78

    After reading your article only I came google wave is very usefull.

  • http://scrapsofmygeeklife.com scrappinmichele

    I do see the potential value once everyone has Wave. At this point, I'm finding that most people I try to start a Wave with never check their account or the person I want isn't on there (or I can't find them because I don't have their gmail address).

    I do like the idea of the family Christmas Santa list after my kids have now received the same DSi games 3 times. That's a use I could probably get on board with because as you can see, email didn't work so well.

  • http://www.mikestenger.com Mike Stenger

    I gotta admit, I haven't been using Wave a ton. I originally was really excited about it but for me at this point in time, don't have much use for it. Some call it “email 2.0″ and all that, however I see it more as what you're primarily using it for, a collaboration tool.

  • http://twitter.com/badleader Bad Leader

    The big limitation thus far appears to be the inability to get things “in” and “out” of Wave.

    I have recently been turned on to Google Docs in a big way…but do not see the same value on the Wave side.

    Has lots of potential.

  • http://www.babystepstofluency.com/ Fiona @ BSF

    I have Google Wave, but haven't really used it as I don't have many people to talk to on there.

    I have about 20 invites if anyone wants one… hit me up at Fiona[at]babystepstofluency[dot]com

  • Geoffrey Martin

    Unfortunately, I still haven't made any conscious attempts to use Google Wave at my job. As self-defeating as it might be, I tend to get very cold on anything that is hyped as much as GW has been. People have been excited about it and don't even know what it does or how it might be useful to them.

    My irrational prejudices aside, I can see how I might be able to utilize it, but right now the obstacle is a lack of understanding by the people around me at my job who haven't even discovered a tool as simple and useful as Google Reader, let alone Google Wave.

  • http://www.onlineinvestingai.com/blog/ George

    Thanks for the info. We are using Google Docs, but haven't started using Wave yet. I guess it is time to start!

  • sarahshawdubois

    Ok, have to admit, never even heard of google wave…..just signed up and will give more comments soon. Any more tips for a newbie? I have a blog that gives info about how to launch tangible (mostly girlie) products so love to try out some of your suggestions.

    Sarah

  • khuramh

    Hi Chris,
    I recently heard Marissa Mayer speak at Leweb. When she spoke about Google Wave for a couple of minutes she used the word team about four times. Which really implies collaboration. I still don't understand the story of wave replacing email.

  • julito77

    Nice post, Chris, and I am still intrigued by Google Wave, but the biggest problem is that with all the tools one has already, GW doesn't do a good job of making it a destination point for people. I have been on it three times, and it's ok, but nothing that I can't do with other social media sites. We will see. The jury is still out for me. Limiting to a specific project is the way to go, as you suggest here. Stay dry today in Boston! All the snow is quickly leaving!

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    So far, it's like document collaboration. Try it for a small project with some other people and see what you think.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Agreed. I think that Wave needs an “export to DOC/PDF/TXT” option.

  • http://blogjourneys.wordpress.com/ Chad Gamble

    Sounds interesting. If anyone has any invites, I would love to try it. Thanks chadgamble@verizon.net

  • http://jeffkorhan.com Jeff Korhan

    Sending you an invite now. :)

  • frankkenny

    A friend of mine is going to be using Wave in an MBA level course this spring. The prof is mandating it for group discussion and projects. for those interested in getting his feedback, his Twiiter is @zwing.

  • pamcourt

    I recently set-up a Wave to work on a collaborative project and it worked quite well for a while. The photographer on the project was on a MAC platform and was uploading composite shots (lo-res jpgs) for the group to review. After a while he had a hard time using Google Wave, but the rest of us were fine. Not sure what created the issues and for it to freeze up for all of us. When it was working and to be able to talk in real time was awesome. I do plan on using this tool in the future especially with remote team members.

  • skstewart

    Thank you for the ideas. I've looked at my Wave account several times trying to figure it out. I will go back with some of these in mind.

  • http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/ Christina

    I haven't really tried using Google Wave, though I accepted the invite, I didn't do much about it. After reading your article and other people's comment, I think I really should give it a try the same way I tried using Google Dashboard.

  • http://www.r4-ds.pl/ dsi r4

    The tips is very useful to wave users. I am new to the Google Wave. So this article is very helpful to me. You are providing a great resource on the Internet here!

  • edhardy11
  • http://www.vitabits.de/chinesische-kraeuter/ginkgo-biloba-6000mg/16397 ginkgo biloba

    Hi,
    Very helpful tips.really Google Wave can change the landscape of how we communicate and collaborate online.

  • mediaman64

    Thank you so much for this post! I was invited by business partners and no one has done anything with it yet.

  • http://www.showdocument.com/ andy

    Personally, I use Showdocument for online teaching and web conferencing. I'm not saying these programs aren't good,
    But I think a web-based application is always better, since there's nothing to download or install.
    try it at http://www.showdocument.com . -andy

  • http://orraclemedia.com/ Rob

    I haven't been able to figure out a good way to use it yet – period. Still trying to figure it out.

  • http://cooper-taylor.com Carol Cooper-Taylor

    Had a look at Google wave and found it too loose in what you could do, so these are good tips Chris. Must have another look.

  • http://BestSellerAuthors.com Warren Whitlock

    Wave is great for collaboration. I think it will be even better when they add in a few more extensions and see it replacing email

  • http://www.thesocialrobot.com/ Kelsey C

    Google Wave is pretty neat. I'm still trying to get used to it. For my heavy duty web conferencing needs, I use RHUB (http://www.rhubcom.com). It has desktop sharing, which I find helpful.

  • computertips

    something new which I read here, thanks
    http://computer-edu.blogspot.com/

  • davidcook

    Hey Chris,

    You would like my Top 10 Improvements for Google Wave in 2010 post.
    http://www.theshinywave.com/collaboration/googl…

  • vks

    Thank you for ur post!
    I have visited a nice tutorial about google wave here http://freshnewz.co.cc/

  • greeblemonkey

    Once again, we're on the same page. But I am still having trouble seeing it as more than chat on steroids. However, our CBS affiliate here in Denver did do something cool and start a wave for Colorado snow watching, which I though was a very smart use.

    https://wave.google.com/wave/?pli=1#restored:wa…

  • greeblemonkey

    oops, ok, so clearly I don't understand how to SHARE waves in links yet. ha.

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    It seems everyone wants to tell you what Google Wave is for. Here is the real kicker. You ready?

    - Google Wave is what ever you want it to be! – No one, and I mean no one, not even Google should be trying to tell you what Gwave is for. Because Gwave is a platform. It comes with tons of programming options to make it whatever you want it to be.

    I myself have been building my Google friends list for 2 years and I have almost 800 all told. So I use Gwave as a mailing list. I could really care less that you Tweet what kind of cookies you are baking, but I use Gwave to shout and discus links I find interesting. But that's me….

    A Scottsdale firm uses Gwave for their support ticket system. Many of my clients use it for a workflow system to stay current with their clients. Salesforce.com too.

    I have invited as many as a hundred or so to a Wave, no problems, it's like a happy hour conversation, sub conversations break out all over the place and that is good too. But just like happy hour, you don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, you can just talk to the ones that interest you. Again, a Wave is what you make it.

    Scoble hates it, Jack Humphrey loves it, Twitter gurus are scared of it, most Bloggers don't understand it and have few contacts so they call it bad names but at least here Brogan seems to be out to understand it.

    And don't let anyone tell you Gwave is not for social media. If that was true the contacts list would not be hooked into Google Friend Connect, Google Reader sharing and Gmail.

    Not to mention Google just bought EitherPad to roll their development team into the Wave team. Want to hang out where I do? Another reason most don't get Wave is they don't have any contacts in Gwave except people they already make contact with. Change that and make your Gwave address public (it already is) like this:

    Wave me at chrislang@googlewave.com See ya on the Wave….

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    Real easy. In a Wave CTRL + a , CTRL + c , open a Word doc or Notepad and CTRL + v. Since you are pulling HTML your formatting should be preserved in Word. If you want to remove all formatting before you paste use Ctrl + 6 Removes formatting from text.

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    If you like Docs, you will love Gwave, the real time colab is way faster and more interactive.

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    You linked to a Wave fine as far as I can see but we can't view it because it is not a public Wave. To make a Wave public so we all can participate there just add public@a.gwave.com to the participants and then anyone can jump in.

    Also don't let anyone tell you Gwave is not a social platform. By making Waves public and tagging them with highly searched tags anyone can search for a public wave and participate. Give it a try. I met 99 new people on a public wave I started about the Google OS that know more about this than I did and I learned allot. Give it a try…..

  • chwait

    Right; but when I copy and paste into google wave from a word doc (on a mac) the formatting gets all screwed up. Any way of getting past this?

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    I wish I had advice for you Mac guys but I am a Linux geek myself. I use W2K at times for Goto meeting and video editing but for the most part I run a browser OS thru Chrome on Linux.

    The only advice for Mac users is to try using Google Docs, since you already have that at hand with your Google account.

    Wish I had more for ya, but again, give it time, Gwave is not even 4 months old in the public's eye.

  • chris

    I figured it out. Google docs is the key for mac users: in an email, click “open as google doc” and then cut and paste. But here's the kicker – when I used cntrl A the formatting got screwed up, but just dragging all the text in the doc worked fine. Weird. Anyway, thanks.

    Chris

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  • http://murciamarketing.com/ Paul Gailey

    It´s a bit premature to write it off Wave as the fad of last decade unless you try it proper. That fine line that divides Docs v Wave usage is more like a grey mushy zig-zag, each have their pros/cons howver integrating both proves awkward. For example, I´ve abandoned the idea of iframe embedding docs into Wave as it modifies already user wary conventions even among geekarati, and instead copy/pasted the Docs content into a Wave – but this only seems useful if their is genuine multi-author action happening at a moment in time – otherwise I´m just as well off using the revisions functions in Docs itself. Then I have to deal with the duplicity of unsynched stuff in different clouds which is just so anti-cloud. For many the whole Wave thing just twists their melons too much. Nonetheless I´ve definitely warmed to it each time I try.

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