I run a software startup called oneDrum. We provide a real-time platform that makes existing desktop applications collaborative. Initially we're targeting Microsoft Office, but later in the year we'll offer an SDK for anyone to use.

I have a girlfriend (Sarah), a 4-year old son (Zac) and a 2-year old daughter called Stella.

I'll be using my blog to talk about oneDrum, the family, and random musings on politics, technology and music.

Google Wave

I just got around to watching the Google Wave video. I hate watching demo videos (please tell me a story in 5 pictures or less), so it was an act of extreme dedication. I’m pleased I did because it really confirmed a set of arguments we’ve been making at oneDrum this year.

  • Conversations need to be more contextual. Place them as close as possible to the thing you are discussing and narrow the scope of the conversation to the thing you are discussing.

  • Conversations need more flexible structures where you can move from ad hoc conversations to greater formality without cost. I argued this here.

  • User experience is critical - implicitly Google are arguing that the current generation of browsers and HTML4 aren’t good enough. It is unfortunate that the stand-out feature of the demo - dragging and dropping from iphoto into the browser - isn’t in any current or planned HTML version.

  • Open API’s, extensible behavior and federated services provide critical mass of functionality and users and communities with ownership of documents and conversations.

But it also left me with a bunch of questions and concerns:

  • Is it too different an approach to communication for a mainstream audience many of whom use email badly and still don’t use instant messaging?

  • Is it too remote from the tools people use today? Most people don’t Twitter, Facebook, or Google Docs. They do use email and MS Office.

But there is some great technology on view:

  • Operational Transforms are a powerful approach to collaboration that we employ in oneDrum, but do require a shift in emphasis from managing conflicts in documents to managing convergence.

  • HTML5 will really improve the browser experience (but when will it be universally supported?).

  • Google Web Toolkit is a fantastic tool for building websites and we utilize it significantly within oneDrum.

So we’re pretty excited at oneDrum about the capacity for Google Wave to convince users of the need for better ways of communicating, in the same way that Google Docs convinced users of the need for better collaboration tools.

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