hi, L.Rasmusson the creator of GWave (Also GMap) left Google and join FB.
I only found out about the demise of Gwave recently, jeez I feel kinda behind.... my take, and what we can learn from it... I guess Rasmusson was pissed that his baby was not supported by Google. I would have felt the same, if I was in the same league;-). Google should have been more patient, they should not expect GWave to be like GMail. It will take longer to catch on. I think its a very different product. With GMail, its a no brainer, people are already used to webmail. They are not introducing a new product, just a same old product under their brand name. When GWave 1st came out, its an entirely new way of doing things. Ppl couldn't figure out how to use it, what to do with it. Also they couldn't categorise it. Its certainly not meant for the masses, like gmail (the fbk/twitter junkies are too dumb to use it!). Some geeks would figure out how to use it, but most lay people will shun it, as its totally different and new. However it makes an excellent collaboration tool. Maybe ppl don't really need to collaborate that much? Maybe they more like gossip, like on Facebook & Twitter, but don't really collaborate. The modes of communication is very different, the 1st is mode based, (read, ponder, post, receive) whereas GWave is for modeless, almost realtime communication. Where your commitment and attention is real-time, like in a meeting. Maybe this is a way of meeting and interaction that many ppl are not used to; even in a real meetings, you seldom have active participation from all members, just 1 or 2 ppl end up doing all the talking, especially in Asian cultures. I think there's also a psycological barrier here, its reported that, initially, users feel freaked out when you can see the other guy typing, like you are baring yr thoughts as you type. Then later they adapt and start editing/completing each others sentences halfway ... as when they collaborate on writing an article. I also think that this psycological barrier does exist in our more conservative Asian cultures. Its like doing pair-programming, I don't think its caught on here at all, I can't find someone to do it with anyway... So perhaps Google should have been more patient, and taken this approach: look for and work with early adopters, these could be any organisation (not necesarily a business, non-profits would be ideal...) support them and learn from them and evolve the product. For one thing although I think the underlying infra is great, the UI kinda sucks. It could have been made simpler, more 'compact'. I for one think that when working with an app that shows a lot of info, its better to have multiple windows rather than multiple panes in a big window - but with the current UI its not intuitive to do so. So google shld have been more patient, used the early adopters as incubators, leverage them to create the hype, create the stories, then the rest of the 'herd' will slowly want to adopt it, becos 'so & so name brand company' is using it! I also think that they did themselves a disservice by not giving out enough users beta accounts. Many who were keen could not get an account, and after a while they loose interest. Also when they assigned accounts, they gave each user only 5? other accounts to give away. This is a big FAIL. If I have only 5 accounts to give away, then I will be very 'stingy' with those accounts and and tend to hoard it rather than give them away, this certainly destroys the viral marketing momentum! If I have more colleagues using GWave, then I wld be more inclined to use it. Its the network effect, the (greater) number of users, creates its own success.... Dumb of Google not to recognise this. I don't think it is meant to take on social networking, its a bigger sort of product, a different sort of product, but not having a sufficient critical-mass of initial users certainly deterred its adoption and success. other news.... its creator talking about GWave after its public release. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lars-rasmussen/google-wave-open-to-every_b_581298.html Why he quit http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/why-i-quit-google-to-join-facebook-lars-rasmussen-20101101-1799q.html GWave to live on. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_wave_will_live_on_as_apache_wave.php this guy positions himself as a online mktg and userbility expert, has some interesting points to make on GWave's failure although I may not agree with all of them. http://www.craigritchie.com/category/unleashing-experiences/ -- #------- regds, Boh Heong, Yap -- To unsubscribe from and detail about this group http://portal.mosc.my/osdc-my-mailing-list-information Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
