More great responses to some recent posts to recap, along with an interview I did a few weeks ago that seems to be pretty timely.
- eWeek's Clint Boulton offered a lengthy look at my post about The Web Way vs. The Wave Way. I think the story does a fair job of representing not just my argument, but the counterarguments from those who disagree. One highlight:
EWEEK brought the post to Google's attention August 10, looking for comment from Wave creators Lars Rasmussen and Jens Rasmussen, who built the platform in secret in their home country of Australia before unveiling it to a room of applause at Google I/O in May. However, Google declined to challenge Dash's points.
- My piece on Google Wave also marked the first time I had my work syndicated on Lifehacker. There was a really smart and lively discussion in response, with the highlight for me being the comment, "What a great article and discussion. It's feeling like old school LH in here today!" I also earned my second mention on the excellent "This Week in Google" podcast, which goes beyond just talking about the big GOOG and covers the evolution of cloud computing as well.
- J Aaron Farr posted Wave's Web of Protocols, and Eric Smith wrote PubSubHubBub Hullabaloo, both offering helpful diagrams to help explain the architecture of Google Wave and PubSubHubBub, respectively. I found both to be useful starting points for understanding these technologies if you're more of a visual thinker.
- I'd meant to include a link in my original Wave post to A Google Wave reality check, where Tom Krazit at CNET provided some interesting glimpses behind the scenes of the making of Wave. A key quote:
Google believes developer feedback is crucial to [Wave's] evolution as a product. "We wanted to get people thinking about how we're going to use it and what people are going to use it for," [Wave co-creator Lars Rasmussen] said.
- As Daniel Graversen mentioned in my own comments, he wrote a nice response called Is Wave too complicated?
- Finally, Scott Rosenberg, author of the recent blogging history "Say Everything" (which is so far very enjoyable, though I haven't finished reading it yet), answered a question about bloggers who aren't household names by responding "Is Anil Dash a household name? He’s been writing some amazing stuff lately." Thanks, Scott! There's nothing more motivating than being appreciated by smart, thoughtful people.
"Why will the Google Wave succeed, in spite itself?" That's the title of an essay that I've just finished writing. I wrote “in spite itself” because Anil Dash’ critique, based on which he predicted the failure of the Wave, is worth paying attention to, at least on 3 points:
a. “It’s too complex”
b. “There has to be value before everybody has upgraded”
c. “You have to be able to understand and explain it”
The essay grew out from my critique of his critique of the Wave then went to cover topics as diverse as "Flow and Chaos - two scenarios of the near future," "Attention elasticity and the Wave," "We are the message," Doug Engelbart' proto-hypertext Augment system, Stowe Boyd's vision of the “Web of Flow,” and Mitch Kapor on Second Life and the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new world.
You can download it from here:
http://www.twine.com/item/12xggpnf0-38v/why-will-google-wave-succeed-in-spite-itself?context=/user/technoshaman/items#