eSolve Blog
Google Wave - ready for prime-time?
December 4, 2009 11:00
Google recently provided a Beta, invite-only, release of Google Wave, it's answer to "...what email might look like if it was invented today". Google Wave is an interesting technology that offers promise, though the initial offering is rather light. Nick Gall and William Vambenepe correctly identified Google Wave as a "technology showcase", as opposed to the next "killer app". It is more of a demo to show what type of technology might be available, as opposed to a full-featured application that is ready to be used by workgroups. It does, however, attempt to address one of the key deficiencies of using email for collaboration.
Anyone who has worked on a committee or team who has tried to use email for workgroup collaboration knows the limitations of this media. A team gets together and discusses the project, then some (poor soul) is assigned the responsibility of developing a document that will capture the teams recommendation or proposal. This person creates a draft, then emails it to everyone for comments. Everyone emails their comments back, copying everyone, creating hundreds of versions of the document. And so the work goes. "Who's got the latest document?" becomes the norm of the team work environment, and hours of time is wasted without a clear idea of who had commented and when that occurred.
Google Wave sets up a "Wave" or thread that team members participate in to allow them to see and edit the discussion and document(s) in real-time. They can avoid creating new documents and instead simply comment on the original. They can chat with team members or post discussions. Sounds good? Actually, it is, though there are limitations.
First, everyone knows that any well run project requires an excellent leader, and there is no way to automate away this responsibility. Simply creating a thread of all team activity does not organize or prioritize the work. This requires project management functionality, including task assignments and tracking. Perhaps this will arrive in a future version of Google Wave, or be available as an adder by some industrious individual, but for now the application is geared towards document collaboration, without task management. Right now it works like a combination of Google Docs and Gmail, which is exactly what it is intended to do.
If you'd like to combine project management with collaboration right now, eSolve Solutions offers a web-based project collaboration solution, that is driven by activeCollab™, called "The eSolve Office™". Team members can work from anywhere, at anytime, as long as they have access to the Internet and a web-browser. They can share and edit documents and have discussions, just like Google Wave, but there is also a project focus, so a team leader can assign and manage tasks. This combination is key to successful team work.
Contact eSolve Solutions to learn more project collaboration and to schedule an assessment of your work situation. You may also want to try out the eSolve Office for yourself via the demo and watch the video to find out more. The eSolve Office has been used successfully by work teams at the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Schenectady Chamber, plus many others. Let eSolve Solutions help your organization accomplish it's team and committee work effectively and efficiently. We'll Revolutionize Your Work!
----------------
Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
President and CEO
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
December 4, 2009 11:00
Google recently provided a Beta, invite-only, release of Google Wave, it's answer to "...what email might look like if it was invented today". Google Wave is an interesting technology that offers promise, though the initial offering is rather light. Nick Gall and William Vambenepe correctly identified Google Wave as a "technology showcase", as opposed to the next "killer app". It is more of a demo to show what type of technology might be available, as opposed to a full-featured application that is ready to be used by workgroups. It does, however, attempt to address one of the key deficiencies of using email for collaboration.
Anyone who has worked on a committee or team who has tried to use email for workgroup collaboration knows the limitations of this media. A team gets together and discusses the project, then some (poor soul) is assigned the responsibility of developing a document that will capture the teams recommendation or proposal. This person creates a draft, then emails it to everyone for comments. Everyone emails their comments back, copying everyone, creating hundreds of versions of the document. And so the work goes. "Who's got the latest document?" becomes the norm of the team work environment, and hours of time is wasted without a clear idea of who had commented and when that occurred.
Google Wave sets up a "Wave" or thread that team members participate in to allow them to see and edit the discussion and document(s) in real-time. They can avoid creating new documents and instead simply comment on the original. They can chat with team members or post discussions. Sounds good? Actually, it is, though there are limitations.
First, everyone knows that any well run project requires an excellent leader, and there is no way to automate away this responsibility. Simply creating a thread of all team activity does not organize or prioritize the work. This requires project management functionality, including task assignments and tracking. Perhaps this will arrive in a future version of Google Wave, or be available as an adder by some industrious individual, but for now the application is geared towards document collaboration, without task management. Right now it works like a combination of Google Docs and Gmail, which is exactly what it is intended to do.
If you'd like to combine project management with collaboration right now, eSolve Solutions offers a web-based project collaboration solution, that is driven by activeCollab™, called "The eSolve Office™". Team members can work from anywhere, at anytime, as long as they have access to the Internet and a web-browser. They can share and edit documents and have discussions, just like Google Wave, but there is also a project focus, so a team leader can assign and manage tasks. This combination is key to successful team work.
Contact eSolve Solutions to learn more project collaboration and to schedule an assessment of your work situation. You may also want to try out the eSolve Office for yourself via the demo and watch the video to find out more. The eSolve Office has been used successfully by work teams at the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Schenectady Chamber, plus many others. Let eSolve Solutions help your organization accomplish it's team and committee work effectively and efficiently. We'll Revolutionize Your Work!
----------------
Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
President and CEO
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
