First off, my boyfriend, whom you'll remember was part of my first Google Wave experiment, worked on a few projects on GW, primarily a tabletop story-telling game called Point-Man (as seen in screenshots of the first GW post), as well as fleshed out ideas for a series project entitled Dark King's Reign. We used GW to post a main thread on character points, such as vital stats, and then launched a few excerpts of prose for the story, which can be found here.
His comments on GW are as follows:
Regarding Google Wave, I felt that the program worked well as a platform for collaborative project work online. The system is fairly intuitive and easy to use, but it's currently a bit buggy. Connection problems are still an issue for the system. Data loss is still somewhat common and needs to be addressed. A major problem for google wave is also it's biggest strength; it's upgradability. The majority of it's more advanced functionality is dependent on attaching gadgets to your waves. While this allows for a modular functionality that makes the system adapt to your needs, it does make it somewhat unclear exactly what you can do with the system. Theoretically, as long as there are gadgets to allow for the functionality, one can do nearly anything with it. Areas for Google Wave's improvement lie with the further development of gadgets and more advanced capabilities for the platform.
In short, Pros:
--Very useful for collaborative work online
--Easy to use and intuitive
--Upgrades in the future and "modular" gadget-driven add-ons (to be implemented as time goes on)
Cons:
--Data loss
--Connection problems
--Add-ons are sometimes unclear
My friend Jacob and I used GW as we use MSN, and attempted an Role Play story-telling type project involving a few characters from two of our original series. The basic format of the RP is that one person types in dialogue and then waits for a response, often juggling more than one character at a time if the scene calls for it. A partial transcript of this RP can be found here.
Jacob's thoughts on GW:
Well, I think it's a very nifty lil' thing, actually. The [main message box] that we spoke with was brilliant, allowing for edits on misspellings, which is something I direly wish other IM's had.
My only issue with it is that the little button that you clicked when you're done editing didn't appear to send any sort of auditory alert when you clicked it, letting the other participant know you were done.
In spite of that, it was easy to use, once you knew what you were doing, and figuring out how to work GW was just as easy to pick up. Overall, it gets my seal of approval,
And I must make it a habit to use it more then just that one time. XD
In summary his Pros:
--Real-time editing
--Easy to use
And Cons:
--No auditory alert for when other collaborators are using it
Overall, for both participants, Google Wave was a very positive experience, with few problems. I'm happy to report that the positive ranking for Google Wave remains a nice and high score.
