Corbin -

We haven't had the opportunity to meet, but we are both NSA members, so consider this an introduction.

You may wish to consider some of the comments I made in regards to Google Wave on my article, "The New Playground - A Digital Conference Collaboration" that is posted here on Engage365: http://bit.ly/8uc0Pj I do believe that once Google works out the functionality and gets Wave in everyone's hands, it can prove to be a phenomenal tool for real-time collaboration.

I regret I won't be able to participate in your webinar as I'll be speaking in sunny Scottsdale, AZ that day. And for a Chicagoan who has seen enough winter already, I'm sure you'll agree there is nothing wrong with that. :)

Have a great webinar and let me know if I can otherwise help,

Jeff

Hi, Jeff. Nice to meet a fellow NSA'er. I agree, Google Wave has some very significant potential. The collaborative possibilities (specifically for meetings and events) are significant! I will discuss this during the webinar. Thanks for the article link -- some very good points made there.! Will look forward to meeting F2F sometime and best of luck with your presentation in Scottsdale!

I'll be honest. Not all of the NSA agreed with my enthusiasm for using Google Wave during presentations. So feel free to challenge them as they did.

I'm afraid I'm speaking during the NSA Winter conference and will miss that, but I'll look for you at the summer convention.

Jeff

I am equally enthusiastic! New blog posting on the topic at: http://tinyurl.com/l63c36

Oops. I made a comment on your blog, but can do the same here. The collaborative "group" may be limited to one. While I haven't tried this, I understand some are using Google Wave simply to brainstorm with themselves.

Hmmm...I think I'll stick to my journal for that. :)

Hi Jeff and Corbin,

When I first heard about the use of Google Wave at the Ecomm conference in Amsterdam - my mind raced immediately to a form of Mass Collaboration where you flip the event model. Instead of having the speaker do all of the talking - you tap into the ideas and insights of the attendees and let them drive the discussion. Internal Corporate Leadership events - where the top 300 executives get together - was the most obvious candidate. I wrote about it here back in November: http://interactivemtgtech.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/google-waves-hello-to-events/

After using Wave for several collaboration projects, I see the potential of wave - but I don't think that we are going to see broad adoption of Google Wave in events for a few years. I think that the learning curve to using the tool will be a barrier to adoption for many non-tech attendees. Also, I think that the technology hassle will be a barrier to adoption for many event organizers. To implement wave in a conference environment, you need laptops, power strips, internet access, and wifi access (which usually is poor at many venues). For some organizers this will be too much of hassle.

Those are my two cents.

Thanks, Sam, good points.

I look at Wave as a whole new platform and it will be very interesting to see how things play out for meetings. With its open sourcing and easy-to-use APIs, there is much to come. Easy integration with Twitter and other social media platforms are just a few of the ways that this will evolve.

The barrier to adoption I don't think will be a huge issue -- just build easier UIs including mobile interfaces (as has been done with Twitter).

I agree with you on a couple of the issues concerning Wave in its current form for meetings:
1. It doesn't seem very scalable (you can’t get more than 5 or 6 people contributing simultaneously in a wave before it seems to get out of hand).
2. Bandwidth issues in its current form may be a problem (meeting facilities will need to accommodate the exponential growth demands for bandwidth in general). However, this will increasingly be less of an issue as G4 mobile connectivity becomes widespread.

However, for the time being, not everyone needs to be simultaneously participating. Collaborative note taking at events, for example, can be effectively accomplished by just a few people (and people can add to it after the event with speaker replies to questions, slides, photos of the event, etc. etc.). Also, there are many other meeting applications that don't need to involve attendeess simultaneously: collaborative brainstorming for agenda building, small group meeting invitations, attendee surveys after the event, and much more are possible.

Google will be used as a tool (like a spreadsheet) which will be used to accomplish many things -- most of them are yet to be envisioned.

Sam and Corbin -

I think we all agree Google needs to decide what Wave will look like when it grows up. So, no additional commentary needed on that. :)

I tend to agree this will take some some, especially for certain industries that are just now warming up to social media. Recently, I was a presenter at a green industry conference, appropriately named GIC for Green Industry Conference. Out of approximately 2,000 attendees, there was maybe a couple dozen of us actively using the Twitter hashtag.

That means approximately 1% of that population was using technology to collaborate.

Nevertheless, I'm optimistic. It is a trend that is inevitable, given the increasingly collaborative business environments we are all working in.

I suppose we'll just have to carry the torch a while longer until we achieve critical mass!

Jeff, Just a slight word change to your post could make a huge difference to the meaning. You say "Google needs to decide". The true genius of tools like Twitter and Google Wave is that the owners do not need to decide. They have created tools which allow for a whole network of functions to grow up AROUND them.

Wave's future will largely be decided by the apps that are buillt which harness the API's from Wave. Someone will come up with a killer app that meets a popular use case and the mainstream adoption will begin. This may or may not be led by Google.

A bit more info on the topic here: http://bit.ly/3qe6Vz

Corbin, I'm sorry that I won't be able to participate in your webinar on Thursday. It is timely and I know it will be informative as you always are. I'm hoping that one or more others from CRG will be able to participate. It is a pleasure to join you and others on this journey of figuring out how we can use technology to improve the event experience for our attendees.