Google Wave Roundtable:

This podcast is a round table discussion about Google Wave and how it can be used for product development and where the technology stands today.  Topics covered:

- First impressions

- Promises for Product Development

- What are the main Pros/Cons

- Google Wave wish list?

- Browser extensions

- FireFox - Google Wave Add-on

- Chrome - Google Wave Notifier

- Desktop applications

- Windows/Linux (via WINE) - Google Wave Notifier

- Mac - Unofficial Google Wave Notifier

Since Google Wave has been available, many flocked to it and the overall user base is somewhat underwhelmed since it is yet another place you have to check.  Since Google Wave doesn't automatically come "out of the box" with a notification mechanism or the ability to use it with everyone like email, the adoption and use of this tool is limited for those who are in the Wave ecosystem.

Personally, I am noticing that many of my own Wave contacts are not active anymore since responses will sometimes take days or weeks to get, thus making the communication ineffective.  This hinders my ability to push further into what use cases Google Wave is good for.  Gina Trapani said it best on This Week in Google that applications are typically created to solve a problem and Google Wave is a solution searching for a problem to solve!

It is a preview and passing judgement of Google Wave's success or failure would be a mistake.  Google seems to be committed to making Wave the next big communication vector so I am continuing to test and try out ways to simplify my own communication with it.  How do you use it?  What is missing or needed for it to be a useful tool for product development or any other task? Please share your experience in the comments.

I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a Google Wave round table discussion together since it's launch, till today.  Due to some issues with iPhone batteries and Skype, (don't ask), Josh Mings from SolidSmack was only on the call for the first 5 minutes but Ben Eadie from SolidJott and Mechanical Mashup TV was able to fill in for the remainder of the cast.  We will make sure Josh is in the followup podcast once Google Wave gets more developed.

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