A New Wave in Online Collaboration Tools

Are you spending more time in meetings than actually working? Has your fax machine started to memorize certain documents that get passed back a forth with your customers? Does editing a contract feel like a game of hot potato passing changes back and forth? You may be suffering from collaboration overload. It’s a common problem seen in organizations that look to committees for everything. This month I have some good news for you.

Google recently released a new beta product called Google Wave. This revolutionary product represents the next generation in online collaboration tools. As a cross between email, instant messaging, and online wiki, it provides a new way to interact with your employees and business partners by creating what are called “waves”. Creating a “wave” allows multiple people to simultaneously edit documents, hold online meetings, and coordinate projects with ease, all in real time.

Like email, Google Wave has a familiar Inbox where you see both new and existing waves from others. But unlike email, all replies and forwards occur within the same wave. This makes it really easy to track all of the ongoing discussion in one place. You can edit comments, reply, and even have private side discussions all from the same wave window. That might seem a bit confusing a first, but Google Wave also allows you to see changes to a wave as they occurred over time, using an innovative Playback feature. Using playback you can actually watch who made changes in the wave as if you were to go back in time and watch from the beginning. Playback is a very useful feature for understanding how people arrived at certain conclusions.

I have been playing with Google Wave for several months now and I have to say that there are some really effective uses for this new tool. Google Wave comes with an ability to add interactive functionality into your waves through the use of extensions also known as gadgets. For example if you’re planning the next company BBQ, you can include the weather forecast using the Accuweather.com extension. You might also include an interactive map gadget to give the address and directions, and an interactive Yes/No/Maybe gadget to get a firm count on the guest list. The real power in Google Wave comes from its ability to quickly bring all of the power of email, instant messaging, and interactive web pages together into one central location.

Truth be told, there is a downside to this powerful technology. With all of the speed up that comes from using wave, it can be a productivity drain as well. There is something about watching others type that is quite hypnotic, and if left unchecked you might find yourself collaborating the day away. I think the best practice is to limit the number of people you are collaborating with by limiting the topic of each wave. Use the tool to plan the BBQ, not rewrite the company business plan.

While online collaboration tools have been around for years, I think Google has a great new solution that may finally bring collaboration to the masses. As with Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press, Bell’s telephone, and the rise of Internet, history has shown that decreasing the lag in communications has increased the speed of innovation. Google Wave has the potential usher in a new set of communication tools and thereby fundamentally change the speed of business. So buckle up. We’re in for quite a ride.