Google Wave: I Got It! I Get It. I Don’t Get it….
I finally got one of the coveted invites to Google Wave, the brand-new collaborative tool from the search giant, poised to change all our lives forever. I logged in, and… stared at it for 45 minutes, having no idea what to do. The welcome page threatens to make you watch a one-hour, 20 minute video so you can understand all the new tool’s innards (I don’t think so). I finally got entry to the For Immediate Release podcast Wave thanks to friend Dan York (who himself jokes about how hard Google Wave is to understand). However, it’s going to take some more exploring, hand-holding, and leading-by-example (by someone else) to really see the possibilities.
I believe Google Wave can be fantastic. It’s just not intuitive out of the box, something I am certain Google will address before they open this to everyone.
I’m going to hitch up to the Dan York wagon and follow what he does. He already has a great screencast up explaining how people collaborated live during a recent conference.
Dunbar’s Number Upheld in the Court of No Appeals (Seth Godin’s Blog)
That’s “No Appeals” as in “No discussion or debate” rather than “lack of appeal,” but you knew that. Seth Godin defends the notion of 150 people as the maximum number of simultaneous meaningful relationships as immutable. I definitely agree with the notion that you actually feel the moment you stretch and break the bonds of the manageable community. I still think it’s bull that you cannot have a larger community. You still have your core Dunbar, but I find that multiple “baby Dunbars” are possible as you switch personae, topics, or events. Not all of your 150 are interested in the same thing. If you compartmentalize, you can hotwire your network to handle these multiple Dunbars. Do you agree?
Fake AP Stylebook Rules
If anyone is using Twitter the way it should be used, it’s these folks. I mean it.
Things I Don’t Need That Will Probably End up Being Extremely Popular TwitterPeek
Someone I read on Twitter (Andrew Baron maybe?) thought his was a hoax when he first saw it. I did a triple-take as well. But apparently it’s real: a Twitter-only device costing $199 and $7.99 a month. I’m sure it works great. Me, I have thing thing called a phone. I just have this itchy feeling that people will actually buy this and use it. We’ll see.
Twitter Lists (No, it’s not sinking, it’s a new feature silly)
I guess I’m punchy, what with the terrible puns…
I have more coming on Twitter lists, but in short, I think the ability to make and share lists is a great utility for Twitter. It’s also a great ego game (how many lists are YOU on?). Also, Christopher Penn’s “anti-lists” don’t count, unless you enjoy being an idiot, moron or spammer; e.g., there really is something wrong with you.