Google engineer David Wang explains how collaborative editing through concurrency control and operational transform work in Google Wave.
You can also check it out on youtube.com.
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Integration, a form of an extension, is a wonderful concept that the Google Wave team capitalized on. Through integration, users will be able to bridge the gap between various websites and Google Wave. One example of this is Twitter. Users will be able to see other people’s tweets, search tweets, and simply tweet on Twitter through Google Wave. Integration will allow wave users to be able to manage various types of websites all on Google Wave. Google has invented a software that will eliminate the need to surf through numerous accounts online to check up on updates.
As people embed photos and videos onto their websites, waves will also have the capability of being embedded into websites. This is truly remarkable because all of the same functions that are possible on Google Wave will also be possible on any website simply through embedding. Through this ability, a company can embed a wave onto their own company website and have conversations with customers through waves. A family can create a blog, converse and post photos and videos at ease through embedding a wave into the blog.
The video above shows how easy it is to post photos onto a wave, and it also shows how easy and efficient it is to embed a wave onto a website.
Extensions on Google Wave can be thought of like applications on Facebook or Myspace. Having applications on your Facebook account allows for a more complete experience, and in the same way, extensions will be devices that will enhance your Google Wave affairs by far. There are two types of extensions: gadgets and robots.
Gadgets are extensions that act like individual appliances within a wave. A couple examples of gadgets include the search engine within the waves and games such as Sudoku and Chess.
Robots are extensions that are actively involved in the conversation within the wave. One example of an amazing robot which was demonstrated in the Google I/O 2009 is a translation robot. This robot can translate forty different languages, and the coolest thing about it is that it translates word by word, character by character in real time.
There are no limitations when coming to variations of robots and gadgets. Since Google Wave is open source, as I’ve explained previous posts, any developer from around the world can create their own robots and gadgets. Because of this, extensions will enhance the Google Wave experience in ways we cannot even begin to comprehend.
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Open Source
What does it mean for a software to be open source, and how will it shape the future of Google Wave?
According to OpenSouce.org, open source is ” a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.” This basically means that anyone can contribute to and critique open source software.
With Google Wave being open source, possibilities are endless. The way in which the creators of Google Wave, Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen, and Stephanie Hannon, developed Google Wave allows for developers all around the world to contribute to the software.
Some of the advantages of Google Wave being open source are:
-Just like email, developers can recreate various services for the waves.
There are many different services for webmail, such as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. In the same way, because Google Wave will be open source, developers world wide will be able to create their own webmail service as they wish. This will allow users to choose from their favorite, more suitable wave service for their own personal use.
-Anyone can contribute to the wave protocol.
This is a given, but as people start using Google Wave for various reasons, there will be a need for changes and adjustments to Google Wave. Because Google Wave will be open source, Google will not be the only one responsible for these improvements. Being open source, Google Wave will continue to improve appropriately to the demands of users.
-Endless opportunities with extensions.
More info on this will be posted in the future. For now, just know that extensions make Google Wave better, and the fact that developers all over the world will be able to create their own extensions add to the sensational quality of Google Wave.
