Waving, not drowning

We’re pleased to present what we hope to be the first of many guest posts on spreadingjam.com. Mr Oli Newton (@olinewton) is the head of emerging platforms at i-level.

At the moment Wave is an undefined shell. Its core description is probably along the lines of an uber wiki based collaborative document editing tool. But that is pretty dull compared to “the next revolution in email”.

Focusing on the undefined shell though, we can picture various uses and evolutions of Wave. The problem though is that what we see now is not what will make Wave the must use, rather than the ‘must have’ (the crazy eBay prices have rationally started to fall). Like Twitter, it needs other people, applications and interfaces to help define it.

We’ve already started to see basic robots created to scour Amazon and help sell you books and DVDs, others that feed in live stock prices or tweets. The eco-system is being generated.

So for those of you who currently have it and wonder what you do with it. Don’t worry, don’t get disheartened and consign it to hype over substance, accept that we are on the cusp of something new and revel in the fact that you were there early and will be able to see it evolve and become useful. Then in 6 months or a year when it is totally different and useful, smugly tell people you were one of the first to get an invite.

what to use google wave for