Originally, I was like everyone else. Google Wave was announced. I read a few articles about it, yawned, and didn’t really know what all the fuss was about.
Then about 4 months ago, two different people of whom I respect, both said that they found Google Wave to be helpful when they were developing ideas or developing project details, etc., with multiple people who were in multiple locations. Hmm…
I have a few projects like that on the go from time to time. I think I’ll give Google Wave a try.
I did. I liked it. It WAS helpful, and it was very easy to use. I could use it when & where it suited me, and others could do the same. It got to the point that I had created more than a dozen “waves” (as they’re called) for projects at work, projects at home, and projects at church. It was becoming a nice little tool. It wasn’t perfect and there were additional capabilities we were hoping that would be added to it, but it was very functional and helpful as it was.
And then Google announces its demise a few days ago. Sure, most people have never tried it and therefore don’t care. But, I was starting to like how it enabled multiple people to work together to develop ideas and plans and details throughout a process. I was starting to use it on a fairly regular basis, and I was enjoying what it enabled teams to be able to do together.
But alas, why cry over spilt milk, as the saying goes… It was nice while it lasted. I guess I’ll have to find some lesser tool to allow our teams to collaborate in some way, hopefully. But will anything else measure up to what we have started to become accustomed to? Once we’ve had a taste of the better fruit….
(by Doug Braun)
