Google Wave: Paradigm shift or gimmicky app?

[weaklingrecords]

So I've heard a lot about Google Wave recently, mostly as I've been getting google alerts about cyberinfrastructure, metadata, and cloud computing and trying to view those through the lens of potential effects on higher education and higher education administration specifically. I'm reading a lot about e-archives and open access and scholarly

Comments

[wafwot]

It's a pretty neat app, but I still don't "get it" yet. I've been tinkering with it for awhile now* and all I can say is that it's pretty slow, and seems like the crack-addicted love child of Twitter and Facebook. At times, in a really busy Wave, there's just too much going on. But then again, I've only been looking at public waves.

Think of it as an interactive chatroom, of sorts. I can see it being a good collaborative tool, but I have a hard time picturing its usefulness in education, other than online course discussion.

Right now you need an invite because, as far as I can tell, it's not really on the "cloud" and is slow as hell. They're carefully scaling the severs with each batch of invites that go out to make sure that it doesn't break. (I already had a wave "explode" on me -- that's their technical term.) If I get another round of invites, I'd be more than happy to send one to you.

* I'm pretty sure I got an early invite because of the poem I attached with my invite request: Roses are red / Violets are blue / Bing really sucks / I'm sticking with you.