[Howto] Manage a Group Project on Google Wave

I suppose a few of you have gotten your invites from friends and co-workers, I got one from a generous member of Chrome-OS Forums. When you first login to Wave, you see something similar to the Google Contacts layout page with a window for Waves, and another for Contacts (Your buddies/colleagues on Gmail).

The coolest part of your first experience is Doctor Wave who will pop up in the video box on the bottom right hand corner and start explaining and pointing to everything, I think every online app should have this.

So you make your first Wave, which looks just like a chat message. Then your buddies comment and it ends up looking like Gmail!! Ok, so, now what. Well, there’s a lot more to Google Wave than just using it as an IRC chat room.

Doctor Wave:

When to use Google \/\/ave

Go back to Welcome wave

There are tons of ways to use Google Wave–here are just a few examples to get you thinking and an overview video that shows Google Wave in action.

Organizing events

Keep a single copy of ideas, suggested itinerary, menu and RSVPs, rather than using many different tools. Use gadgets to add weather, maps and more to the event.

Sample event planning wave

Meeting notes

Prepare a meeting agenda together, share the burden of taking notes and record decisions so you all leave on the same page (we call it being on the same wave). Team members can follow the minutes in real time, or review the history using Playback. The conversation can continue in the wave long after the meeting is over.

Sample meeting notes

Group reports and writing projects

Collaboratively work in real time to draft content, discuss and solicit feedback all in one place rather than sending email attachments and creating multiple copies that get out of sync.

Sample project

Brainstorming

Bring lots of people into a wave to brainstorm – live concurrent editing makes the quantity of ideas grow quickly! It is easy to add rich content like videos, images, URLs or even links to other waves. Discussion ensues. Etiquettes form. Then work together to distill down to the good ideas.

Sample brainstorm

Photo sharing

Drag and drop photos from your desktop into a wave. Share with others. Use the slideshow viewer. Everyone on the wave can add their photos, too. It is easy to make a group photo album in Google Wave.

After searching the net for a half decent guide, I found a pretty good example at Life Hacker:

http://lifehacker.com/5407183/how-to-manage-a-group-project-in-google-wave

To chat with other Google Wave sufers, head over to the Wave board on ChromeOS Forums, you never know, there may even be some invites up for grabs, they’re a friendly bunch at COF.

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