Summary+of+Google+Wave

<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font: small arial,sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; webkitborderhorizontalspacing: 0px; webkitborderverticalspacing: 0px; webkittextdecorationsineffect: none; webkittextsizeadjust: auto; webkittextstrokewidth: 0px; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> toc  =What is Google Wave? = //**"Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."**//


 * **Google's Suggested Applications**

Organising Events Group Projects Photo Sharing Meeting Notes Brainstorming Interactive Games ||  || "Extensions" that can be included in a Wave

Sodoku Puzzles Tele-conference Video-chat Lonely Planet Itineray Weather Google Maps ||  ||   ||   || media type="youtube" key="YiGdUmvPRy8" height="344" width="425" || //Sourced from:// //www.wave.google.com/help/wave/about//

=**Basic Wave Functionality**=


 * media type="youtube" key="MS9AbePnE08" height="344" width="425" || 

This quick video outlines the basic concept behind Google Wave - a good place to start . ||


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This video from Google discusses the basic tools of Google Wave. In it you will see how to replicate the basic email functions such as add contacts, post a reply, navigate between messages, change views, search for waves and file manage waves. You can also check the spelling using a unique tool (Spelli) which can differentiate between like sounding words (i.e. bean and been), tag a wave with keywords, playback a wave so that you can view its development and translate messages as they are typed using an online translator. || media type="youtube" key="xBzuuWZPaXc" height="344" width="425" || 

=Wave Terminology=

Before we go any further with Wave, we should take a closer look at the terminology associated with it. Ben Parr of Mashable.com offers us an excellent explanation of the terms associated with Google Wave:  >> See this link for more about robots. See  this link for a fuller description of extensions.  =The Future Of Wave=
 * Wave:  A wave, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison I can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history  with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Wavelet: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation – a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Blip: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Document: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Extensions: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave.There are two main types of extensions: Gadgets and Robots.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Gadgets: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> A gadget is an application users can participate with, many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform. A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Robots: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. Twitter <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Embedded Wave: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> An embedded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chatroom, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The creators of Google Wave have deliberately designed the Wave platform to be used by others to creatively innovate new uses and applications. To this end, the code is open sourced and there is support for developers to write new applications (API's) for use with the Wave platform. Google has learned from Google Maps in this respect - when they allowed users to use google maps in new ways, all kinds of new uses were created that the original developers hadn't thought of. This represents an innovative new use of open source software inside a for-profit business model. Also, the release was more like an open source release - previews became available long before the bugs had been ironed out in order to allow the developer community input into the final rollout of the software. This work-in-progress model of business echos the operation of the wave itself, where everything is a work in progress and collaborators can see each others ideas and revisions. It seems that Google Wave creators have intended to create a new communications protocol (much like a new email) which can be freely used by anyone and potentially hosted by other organisations. If a business or organisation sees the value in using Wave as a communication/collaboration tool, they may choose to maintain their own wave server just as they currently maintain an email server. This may see the addition of other wave service providers which increases the competition and the level of the technoogy as each business competes by improving the functionality and features available with their Wave service