Archive for the ‘Google Wave’ Category

Nope, I’m not going to be posting every single day but will be posting as and when I discover new findings or have made some form of progress.

Yesterday, I was feeling very blonde with Google WAVE and I’m not convinced that’s changed but I am going to stick around and give it some of my attention.

After my frustration yesterday trying to invite someone,  I decided it was time for me to actually go and read the help section instead of jumping in the deep end.

No more invites for now

So this was my progress today.

I discovered that I am still waving by myself or waving to myself as I cannot easily wave with anyone, reminds me of the song by Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb where it starts “Is there anybody out there?”

I also discovered that numerious invitations were sent out, 100,000 I believe and in the help section it said that there is a long waiting list to be processed which means that “the lights are off “and no more invites are being sent but once Google has caught up they will be waving invites to current users to invite others so I have to wait until I see the wave invite option in my Google WAVE inbox.  Correct me if I’m wrong but this is what I read in their help section.  This made me feel a little less blonde.

It’s a waiting game

So everyone who is asking me for invites, “it ain’t gonna happen” in the near future and even if it did by the sounds of things you may have to wait a while.  I also have to laugh at all the comments I read from people asking for invites on various blog posts, how funny, as I am sure that most people who can invite others will only be inviting people they know or have a relationship with.

I know for me personally, I would really like to try out this new collaboration tool with my inner circle and by this I mean my team and close colleagues.  In running a virtual business it is very important to always find ways of working more efficienctly and finding ways to be more productive and this may be one of those solutions.  Anyway, right now while the lights are off and I’m waving to myself it is rather difficult to experience Google WAVE properly because I need my team on board to be able to do this.

Google WAVE application

On another note however, looking at the application it seems pretty straight forward, adding a contact seems easy enough to do and you can import CSV files which is a bonus, now I can export my contacts from Outlook into my GoogleWAVE contact section.  Clicking on various functions seems  rather sticky.  I tried to access various folders, such as inbox, trash, and all and had to click a few times before anything happened,  seemed stuck.

I twittered to see if any of my followers are part of Google WAVE and so far not much joy but Simon Mohr of Canterbury Geeks is a WAVE user and has added me to his list of “How to Tips for WAVE” , “yay” I have two contacts on my list now and have finally received one WAVE message from someone I know,  Simon Mohr who is waving with some other wavers who are busy sharing their tips and tricks in a WAVE discussion and now I need to find something useful to add to their discussion.

Romany

So the big hoohah at the moment is Google Wave.   I watched the video a while back  and completely forgot to sign up, so when the news was out that invites were out and being sold on E-Bay, I felt a bit like an outsider and being in the virtual business that is not a very good thing. 

Have you heard the saying: “It’s not what you know but who you know” and receiving an invitation this morning reminded me of how true this can be.

There I was a silly idiot in front of my laptop feeling all chuffed and excited that I got to be a part of the whole Google Wave experience, yeeehah and very grateful to the person who sent me an invitation. Thank you Geoffrey.

Busy with my work, I left it open and carried on with other things.  Later on viewing Twitter, someone posted something about Google Wave and I decided that it was time to have a bit of a play with Google Wave.

I’m not a “read the instructions/user guide kind of gal”, I’m more of “let’s jump in the deep end and see how I swim”.  If it is user friendly, I’ll stick around and give it more of my valuable time, if it is not easy and it looks like I’m going to have to read the user guide then I’ll weigh up my options and decide whether to move on and find something that does meet my needs and is user friendly or is it really that important that I need to grab the bull by the horns and make the time to read the user guide and do it step by step.

So here is my first day having access to Google Wave and what did I achieve. Very freaking little!!!

So far, I figured out it is pointless me adding my contact as I cannot WAVE with them.   It says they do not have a WAVE account. I can however add a contact and when I click on their email address it goes directly to my Outlook mailer and I email them from Outlook so pretty much functions on the same basis as it would if I clicked on an email address on a website I was visiting.

I then decided to watch the let’s get started intro that was sitting in my inbox and guess what I’m no further than I am when I first got the invite.

I clicked on search, added some key words and nothing happened but it did save my keyword title in my list. Yeehaah that is helpful, (yeh right)

I twittered about Wave and my colleague Steven Healey said I should add him as it only accepts people on WAVE, tried that, nope nothing happened.  Another colleague suggested I join his how to and must send him my WAVE address, “I HAVE ONE?”  ok, I have no idea what it is, where it is or how I can find it so I’m back to square one.

So here I am feeling like I am seriously going nowhere slowly and having to make a choice as to whether I have the time to read the instructions sllowwwly and work it out, or shelve it for when I must have it.

Google WAVE is making me feel really frustrated and very blonde today.

So I leave Google WAVE today thinking of this song and let’s see what I decide to do Tomorrow, I do however know the answer already, I just need to find the time.

Romany