Google Wave: SocialMedia+Email+IM+Wiki+TimeMachine

Touch technology is one means of achieving multiple-user single-tasking on one workstation. Branching from that idea, wouldn’t it would be nice if cloud applications (software that runs as an online service, like GoogleDocs) would allow multiple users to make edits simultaneously?

If cloud applications don’t allow collaboration in real-time, then their only benefit is eliminating the need to pass around a file or physical document. A team might as well have met in face-to-face and gone through each edit in succession. Real collaboration tools allow for a dynamic group conversation.

I watched the Google Wave keynote speech at Google I/O 2009 and wow, it’s like this intense social media cloud mashup of instant messenger, email, wikipedia, and widget-y goodness…PLUS A TIME MACHINE!

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From GoogleBlog, these are the questions that led to the development of Google Wave, this ingenious new tool for live online communications & collaboration:

1. Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents?
2. Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it?
3. What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

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Best part? LIVE TRANSMISSION. As in, it’s possible to follow individual characters as other users type in REAL-TIME! Also, AUTOMATED LANGUAGE TRANSLATION and a spelling & grammar check that adjusts for surrounding content! Sounds handy.

Advantages of Multi-Touch Technology (IDC2009 Recap #2)

While working on a group project, I noticed how ill-suited mobile computers were for collaborative use. Even with computer display connected to an external projector and another mouse, it was impossible for more than one person to make edits when pulling together a PowerPoint presentation. Only one set of actions went through via vocal instructions to a laptop user, regardless of the number of ideas tossed out that could have been explored. This hampered productivity.

Imagine trying to have a conversation with five of your best friends that you haven’t seen in a year (yay!) except only one of you can speak at a time with no interruptions or exclamations. This is no way to work nor socialize.

I wished, then, for an operating system that would support a minimum of dual input (at least two mice, two cursors on one screen) for multiple-user single-tasking, AKA “group conversations” on a single workstation.

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Computing hardware has advanced by leaps & bound and become increasingly powerful, efficient, and reliable–whereas mainstream graphical user interfaces have remain unchanged, for the most part. 

Technology has allowed us to amass an immense amount of data in digital age (satellite imaging, radiology scans, genome sequences), but no user interfaces exist which can visualize, analyze, and present data as readily as multi-touch platforms can. Other than being downright cool, touch is ideal for consuming/presenting information. Because it is a more natural interface, it increases user productivity.

I’ve been drawn to it from the start.

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Zooming in and out of photographs is direct manipulation using two fingers of one hand, a bare bones gimmick for ads; it doesn’t scratch the surface of what true multi-touch (more than two input points!) is capable of.

For example,Perceptive Pixel offers pressure-sensitive multi-touch displays that can sense an unlimited number of simultaneous touches with accuracy and precision. Their displays come bundled with the right software and have applications in geo-intelligence, broadcasting, medical imaging, data exploration, digital storyboarding, industrial design…the list goes on. 

Microsoft’s Future Vision of Computing: A Glimpse Ahead (IDC2009 Recap #1)

At IDC2009, I had the privilege of meeting Steven Batiche (Director of Research, Applied Sciences Group, Entertainment & Devices Division – Microsoft Corp.) and listening to his presentation on advances in surface computers. When he pulled up a slew of videos demonstrating conceptual and working prototypes from the Microsoft design labs–I was utterly awestruck.

Up until then, I had been steeped in Apple’s powerful marketing campaigns and lost sight of the obvious: that Microsoft is an immense international entity with resources that, if leveraged appropriately, could surpass Apple a hundred times over. Microsoft’s research & development rocks, as far as I’m concerned. They are doing some unbelievable experimentation with surface computers (think Microsoft Surface but 100X more awesome).

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How do I begin to describe what has the feel of pure fiction? It’s better if I show you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvtxupQmRSA&fmt=18

This is the Productivity Future Vision montage from Microsoft Office Labs . Though a concept video by all rights, it is very much grounded on research and is a plausible articulation of  what to expect by the year 2019. There is more artistic license on the software side, but the actual hardware is all too real. Many of the “concepts” have been prototyped or are somewhere along in development. 

From the video, we see:

• Speech, text, and cultural translation.
• Low cost, multi-touch, edge-to-edge displays; flexible, transparent displays.
• Software clusters brought together in a natural user interface.
• Active workspaces with rich graphics, achieved with ambient projectors and thin OLED displays.
• Large displays allowing for different user inputs (touch, mouse, stylus).
• Mobile devices with modular form factors that can access sensor networks and information resources. Image analysis and projection abilities.
• Seamless secure data sharing and integrated workflow tools between devices and across networks.

Check out the coffee mug at 4:12 – it’s to die for. Nothing is impossible! The music makes me feel very optimistic.

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You’ll see technology becoming more invisible, but working harder for you in both your work and personal life. Imagine a future where creating a document with a colleague will be as easy as having a conversation. Making connections with people and your content will be secure and seamless. Relevant insight and information will be delivered proactively and in context to the task at hand.

Mobile devices will be more powerful than desktop computers of today. Technology will connect you with the information you need, when and where you need it, whether it be your local coffee shop, an airport, or a roof top in Hong Kong. Software will be there to make getting things done as efficiently as possible in new ways that are more natural.

["Productivity Re-Imagined" via Microsoft Office Labs]