Lars Rasmussen talks to CNET UK
But it’s not going to happen overnight. It will be five years before we can say “this actually works.”
Lars: Remove Participant Feature due "Within a Month"
We have begun testing remove participant internally and hopefully it will hit externally within a month
– Lars Rasmussen, one of the lead Wave developers.
In a Wave entitled “Google Wave User Black List”, Lars piped up to
offer advice on the best way to avoid and take action against known
trolls and abusers and offered the above titbit about the imminent
release of the ability to remove participants from Wave.
This is big news for Wave, and one of the most important features noticeably missing from the Google Wave interface. Wave abuse, trolling and destruction are all unavoidable realities of using Wave at the moment, and although usually infrequent, can significantly lower the enjoyment and tone of a Wave. Unfortunately, while every one can agree that a removal tool is necessary (and there’s an unusable greyed out button to show that the Wave team think it’s important as well) it hasn’t been implemented yet. One of the reasons for this delay must be the extraordinary thought and research that must be put into such a feature, to make certain that the feature itself is not abused. Care must be taken to see that users who are added and then removed retain some control of their legitimate contributions within context. The ability to remove people from such a collaborative space is an enormous can of worms, and one that most people would agree is important enough to get right the first time.
The wave that Lars opened up on was created to list known trolls and spammers.
bq..
- Once you have added public with full access, making an abuse user read-only is more effective than removing them from the wave will.
- There will soon be a way for you to report abuse directly to our internal abuse team
- The feature you are asking for: block a user from a particular wave and all future waves created by you is exactly right but it will take us many months to get there…
– Further feedback from Lars
This is tremendous news, and along with the ability to make participants read-only, and even score them with karma //the.geekorium.au/karma-a-way-to-keep-wavers-in-line/ give users a powerful arsenal to shape the Wave experience the way they want.
Hat tip to The Shiny Wave: Google Wave User Black List.
Expectations
Set suitable expectations. Despite the months of buzz, and blogosphere- and Twitterverse-wide clamoring for Google Wave invites, the product is still in preview and has some rough edges. Therefore, it does all parties good to be realistic, even if everybody is psyched to be the first kid on their block to use it on a live project.
6 Tips For Using Google Wave On Your First Project.
This is the first of six excellent things to keep in mind when using Wave for the first time, let alone on a project. Wave is full of potential, but people seem to forget it’s still just getting off the ground.
I love that people are using it for projects already.
The problems Wave solves
I believe that people who don’t see what Google Wave is for are simply looking at it from the wrong angle. Wave is not a social tool. It’s not Twitter, it’s not GTalk, it’s not Facebook. It was never designed to appeal to the crowds of geeks who are currently trying it out. Wave is built for the corporate environment. It’s a tool for getting work done. And as far as those go, it’s an excellent tool, even at this very early stage.
Wave and Real Time Collaboration
This in no way represents a new social networking tool, and I think using it as such would be rather cumbersome. The beauty of it is, the user can control the experience and dictate its purpose.
The Freedom Problem
All of this freedom - being able to add to, edit, or delete anyone else’s blip in any wave - doesn’t just lead to accidental destruction but concerns about people “putting words into their mouths”, and raises a number of trust issues for many.
I’m certain that this will not be as big an issue in later iterations of Wave, and there are already some safeguards in place. Nevertheless, it is a real issue to watch as Wave matures.
What You're Missing About Google Wave
What is amazing is that Google has developed a real-time communication framework that can work in a federated environment.
People aren’t getting it right now because they’re expecting the beta to all be about polishing the User Experience. But it’s not about polishing: it’s about defining.
Real Time Communication Framework
What is amazing is that Google has developed a real-time communication framework that can work in a federated environment. People aren’t getting it right now because they’re expecting the beta to all be about polishing the User Experience. But it’s not about polishing: it’s about defining. – Macro Linz » The Point You’re Missing About Google Wave
Some Downsides to Wave
Email chains - the closest thing to waves at this point - are all fun and games until someone CC’s the wrong person, like a parent, relative, boss or overly-sensitive co-worker.
Five Reasons to Be Terrified of Google Wave
A refreshing look at some of the downsides of waves as a new communication medium.
The Re-Invention of Email
Can a small startup - made up the two co-founders and one employee working in a studio apartment in Silicon Valley - go head-to-head with a powerhouse like Google on something as revolutionary as the re-invention of e-mail?
Can a startup challenge Google on the re-invention of e-mail?
Are tools like CC Betty approaching the re-invention of email in a more practical way?
The Impact of Wave on Open Source
If I sound excited, it’s because I am. Google wave has potential to move way beyond yet another buzz-word for the “new-media crowd”. It has the chance to grow some real horns and make a big improvement in the way we develop free software.
Will Google Wave revolutionise free software collaboration?
Free Software Magazine’s Ryan Cartwright on the potential of Waves for Open Source software development.
Hands On with CNET
The merger of e-mail, instant messaging, and collaborative editing is overdue. Aside from the inertia of technology, there’s no reason we should we need different applications - an e-mail client (or site), an instant messenger, and a collaborative editor - for variations on the theme of textual communication. I give Google a lot of credit for kicking off this experiment.
Hands-on with Wave: Weird and quite wonderful
CNET hands on.
The Biggest Hurdle
Q: Do you see yourself using Wave on a daily basis? -mjf
A: Could be my excitement about the novelty talking, but once all my contacts are on Wave, I could see using it instead of Gmail entirely.
Google Wave Questions and Answers
This is the biggest hurdle Google faces. Users convincing other users to switch, so everyone can benefit.
Crystal Ball
Q: Tell us if Google Wave is really the future of online communication -jakeaking
A: Haha, I don’t have a crystal ball, but it IS very promising!
Google Wave Questions and Answers
Gina Trapani on Google Wave’s future.
Embed and Extend
The Google Wave APIs come in two flavors: Embed and Extensions. With Embed, you’re able to bring waves into your own site through a simple JavaScript API. For example, embedding a wave in a webpage is a good way to encourage a discussion among the visitors. With Extensions, you’re able to write programs, which are packaged as Robots or Gadgets, that provide rich functionality inside the Google Wave web client.