I feel a little like an ape in “2001: a Space Odyssey” staring up at the monolith when I look at Google Wave.

It’s shiny.
Undoubtedly clever.
Technologically advanced.
But what does it do? What is it’s purpose?

I kinda get it… it’s a bit like email, but collaborative.
A bit like a shared workspace/whiteboard.
It’s a persistant online collaboration area.
It’s got some IM features.
Does some of the stuff that Webex and Fuze Meeting do.
Maybe a bit of Huddle in there too.

But apparently this is a game-changer, and people are offering their organs and unborn children for invitations to the service.

I’ll say it out loud – I don’t ‘get’ it.

I can’t see myself using it productively.
I have loads of collaboration and communication tools, and I’m not sure where this one fits in.
When I send email of any importance, I give it a quick proof-read, check that my meaning is clear, delete the superfluous stuff, and then hit send.
I don’t really want people to see what I’m writing, letter by letter.
Even IM gives me the chance to construct my ideas 1 line at a time.

As an experiment in collaboration I have used Google docs to co-author an academic document for my studies.
We were a distributed team creating an 8000+ word marketing plan, and we thought we needed real-time collaborative tools to create the document.
It didn’t work.

For serious work, where complex ideas need to be constructed and detailed in a document, it just doesn’t work to have 7 people all working in the same doc at the same time.

I see I am not the only one who thinks that there may be a bit too much hype around Wave.
Much smarter guys than me don’t seem too impressed so far.
Gigaom weighs in, saying that “Google climbs to new heights of arrogance with Wave”, and Scoble writes that Wave will kill your productivity.

Have you used Wave productively, in your personal, professional, or academic life?
Can you see yourself using it beyond the “oh, cool!” stage?
First 8 comments get Wave invites.
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