Understand that it is meant for collaboration. Also it would be handy to keep in mind that too many cooks spoil the broth. Knowing these two things in my mind are the most effective ways to make use of Google wave.
So first things first.
Stop inviting anyone and everyone in to your wave, it doesn’t serve the purpose. You have had your honeymoon period with wave invites where you were the select ones with invites and handing them out to anyone who asked. Now the whole world has it, so stop. Like I said it is a collaboration tool, use it with people that you work with.
WATBlog for instance can use it to for morning news leads instead of email threads. It can open up avenues for bloggers here to collaborate on a story. We haven’t done it yet, but I am sure we will in the future. Add multiple links, add interviews that you take, add your own views as threads, and edit the final story in the wave. I think it is a massive opportunity for in depth industry analysis for bloggers. In fact our yearly industry reviews can begin right now by adding important pieces into particular waves.
Of course this is not an email rant to my fellow bloggers. Wave is applicable to a variety of other groups. If you’re part of the web content and design team of your firm, then Google Wave is your best friend. I in fact worked the most on Wave during our website redesign and some approximate calculations suggest we cut down the development time by around 40%. I also used it extensively with a friend for a lecture we did at a college, and it worked out pretty well in exchanging ideas and formalising the strucutre and content for the presentation deck.
So What did I learn from these projects on Wave?
First that you have to have a clear goal for each wave you create and moderate it like crazy. You need to curate it and someone from your team has to take the responsibility of organizing the content in tune with the goal you have set. If you have tangential topics, create a enw wave and link it to this one as relatted waves rather than letting debates go on in the thread. If you are part of team working on a spcific project on wave, editing an existing wave thread is better than adding your point as a comment. Knowing the difference between a point and a comment can be very handy in this regard. 
Secondly, keep the number of people involved on a wave small. While I don’t see Wave replacing enterprising project management and collaboration tools, I think it is the best for internal projects. So a team which is still a small part of a larger team can make better use of the wave.For instance, a regional business development team part of the global BD people can have a separate wave and use it more effectively than the entire global one. Among the HR folks the training guys can collaborate on their area and leave out the rest of their HR colleagues on a wave. To me it is more effective. Lesser people means lesser noise and sharper ideas.It improves the chances of finalising points instead of tangential debates which suck on productivity and make the Wave seem a drag.
Third point is that you need to stop asking what do I do here to everyone. I think in the initial days of the wave that was the only thread doing rounds “Ok, What do we do here?” and then add everyone on your list so that you get an answer. Of course no one asks this these days because no one uses the Wave now. Also, getting to see what the other person is typing sounds damn cool and stuff but that’s just a tiny inconsequential part of the wave. Get over it.
Some Steps You Can Start of With:
- Make sure you keep your Wave open, it will take time but then what doesn’t? Keep jotting down stuff in waves, and keep it organized. Spend a good 15 mintues everyday on it. Smart that you are you will begin to figure out ways to use it better once you do this.
- Start with a small project, and add 2 or maybe 3 people from your team to work on it. Say make a new presentation deck for your company profile. Start with ideas and rough strucutre and by the end of your wave (set a deadline) you should have a complete transcript of what each slide of the deck will contain.
- You can also try putting in a company feedback form of sorts on wave. Add a set of ideas and ask your staff to comment on them. Don’t let them add their own ideas because then it would create noise. Maintain some level of authority to ensure you reach your goal. In my opinion, achieving your goals is more important than complete participation of all when you collaborate.
- Again, keep your team on a particular wave small. This will help you assign responsibilities and help track participation better.
- Wave is not about replacing email, but removing email for collaboration. It makes your email better and clutter free, think of ways in which you can remove clutter from your email and then use those ways on your Google wave.
I like the idea of using it at WATblog. I was contemplating suggesting that we use an online spreadsheet or something. But using Wave certainly sounds better.
Nice post Manish…liked the tip u inserted about spending 15 minutes everyday on wave.