Google Wave: an Organic Collaboration Platform

Google Wave can be described as a communication/collaboration tool in which products like e-mail, IM, discussion board and Wiki are rolled into one. Though it can be considered a mix of these products, the final outcome is much more than sum of its components — they are all combined in a synergetic fashion.
Once logged on to the Wave infrastructure (https://wave.google.com/wave/), you will find the Wave creation interface. (You now need an invite to participate on Google Wave). Once a Wave is created, you can simply add participants using the ‘+’ button. Now, the fun begins! All the participants who are now on-line and on the Wave window can actively interact in real-time. Yes, for Google Wave the significance lies in real-time participation — real-time e-mail, real-time chat, real-time editing and so on.
When a participant types something, each of the characters entered becomes visible to all the participants. So, in the middle of his/her sentence itself you may understand the intention of your buddy and can answer his/her query before it arrives in full.
Being a hosted service, the Wave thus created (with all its historic details) will be available to all the participants as and when they need it. Another advantage of the Wave is that a new participant can join the discussion at any point of time. Unlike in the traditional e-mail, this late entrant will not miss out on information history.
The facility that lets a participant edit anywhere on the Wave anytime is another valuable feature. A Wave can contain numerous messages from its participants. The interesting feature is that one can reply to any of these messages and create a threaded conversation based on that message.
A Wave is an extremely dynamic entity that always gets enriched through the collaboration process. You can easily attach images and other documents. As you drop files on a Wave, they become immediately accessible to all the participants.
The Hindu