More invites for google wave

Got 8 invites, and if you want one - post your email-adr in the comments here! No more invites - and as google has flooded the web with invites there will not be any more from me. Stay tuned for the next hype :-)

Waving for some weeks

I am riding the wave. Not sure if it the wave with a big W – but I am trying the new Google solution to everything. I even requested them to add it as a service to my domain (Google apps). So maybe that will give me the edge I need. At the moment I don’t think it will change the world. I think we need to change the way we use the internet, but not sure if a new platform will be it. We need something that replaces some other service – or a new way of using existing tools. The mindset needs to be changed from desktop vs internet to applications hosted where ever it is best for the data. Some applications should be available locally, but not all. Some applications should be open source and available on every OS, but not all. And sometimes you really don’t need the high tech solution if you are going to use your laptop only for blogging and twitter.

Are you waving? Connect to me on "the wave". How do you use it? Please comment!

Google Wave Invitation Link

Been some days without new invites to give out. But I got an invitation link for one user in my mailbox today - and as I am hooked up - I'll give it to the first to comment! Good luck!

Traffic to the blog waving in

I am following the analytics from my blog closely to see what content my readers find valuable. Besides the Google Wave invites that generates traffic the more interesting is the articles that generates traffic over and over again. My all-time winner is the one about hacking my wd mybook into a fileserver. This entry generates hits from search engines. So even days without new blog entries somebody reads my blog. I now also see that the blog entries about Google wave (without invites) get search engine clicks. Based on the key words the focus is changing from “I want to try it”, to “what is everybody else using it for”.

Book project on Google Wave

I have been discussing for years with a former colleague to write a book. And today we waved about it. We used Google Wave to collaborate over the idea about using Wave as the tool to write the book. I know about several platforms that could be used, but maybe a new (soon to be over-hyped) platform is what we need. The easiest would have been just to write in Word and send it over by email. And maybe merge documents if we had been writing at the same time. But using new technology and a new work processes is important to our concept.

We are both busy people in the IT/project Management area. We both have families, and we both work for multinational firms. Maybe the book will never be completed. But the idea of the book and all the attributes of a project that we can apply to it will be applied to it. The first is a kick-off meeting – and then we’ll need to agree on a timeframe.

Invites to google wave!

The first 10 posting their email adr as a comment to this blog list will get an invite (nomination). Google use some time to send out the invites - as they say: They have a lot of stamps to lick.

What is the value of a Google Wave invite?

I started my first Wave in the sandbox some months ago. I didn’t really see the value of this new Google concept, but I try to get access to all new pilots and betas that are within my field of interest. Not just because the beta will add value, but maybe participating will open up more interesting betas in the future. Currently I am not sure if Google Wave will be around in a few years. The concept of a new platform that redefines online communication should be something even more powerful. I think a lot will need to happen to the platform before we go around and say:

“let’s wave about it tomorrow”.

Google really changed email when they started the Gmail service – not just by proving a state of the art webmail, but by redefining the normal boundaries known to the consumers.

What will kill of Google Wave is that it is something in addition to everything else. People check their work mail, their private email accounts, Facebook, and twitter, maybe use MSN Messenger or Skype. Adding another online place isn’t solving the information overflow. But the Google people have created hypes before.
As with Gmail they provided some users access to the service, and then gave them invites in limited quantities. Adding the early adopters and making sure that “key geeks” had access gave them a big group of followers. As with Orkut and Gmail is it possible to buy invites on eBay. The price is low. Around 1$ is very low compared to Gmail. But Gmail provided people with a free service that had a price. Big storage was a valuable asset. Wave isn’t giving away something that already exists, so the value isn’t there at the start – the value is the expected possibilities from this new platform.

I don’t think you’ll need an invite. But I still have some left. Go here if you want one.

10 invites for google wave

Post a comment on this blog entry and get an invite to Google Wave!

What do you do when there is no more to do online?

I just returned from a two weeks’ vacation with family at Grand Canary (Spain). We enjoyed life for two weeks with our two boys and some friends. Life was perfect. We were close to disconnected – just with a couple of online visits to check for mails from friends and family. Returning back to home with a mind still in vacation mode was great. Going from 34 degrees Celsius to minus 2 degrees and snow was painful. Adapting to winter went fast – but the mind tried to stay in vacation mode.

Opening the full email view of both private and corporate mail; and a full RSS-reader and being just behind on everything made me prioritize. I sorted all the private mails from travel agencies, newsletter and other non-personal stuff and pressed the great “archive” button in Gmail. Being offline really makes you disconnected. The information level from all your sources is just an overload making it easy just to reject it. Trying not to start consuming information at the same level. So what do you do when all the stuff you normally do is too much?

I’ll try to keep my brain in this mode for a week. Only doing what I really need to do. Unclutter my online activities. I’ll focus on completing the really important tasks.

Invites to google wave!

I got 12 invites to google wave. The 12 first to comment will be invited!