If you’ve spent any time on Twitter the past few days, or if you subscribe to any of the big tech blogs like Mashable or Wired, you have probably already heard your fill of the words “Google Wave”. Like with any shiny new technology, much of the hype surrounding the first public invites to Google Wave is just that – hype. But beneath all the glitter and noise is a product that could have a real impact for a lot of individuals and organizations, including your nonprofit.
What is it?
Not to put too fine a point on it, Google Wave is a new communication tool, which its creators and more rabid fans see as basically the next email. Combining aspects of email, instant messaging, collaborative documentation, and a handful of other technologies, it’s a platform that can and will be used to create some really interesting applications in the next few years. It was developed by the same team that brought us Google Maps, which is in my opinion one of the most useful free applications on the web. In my day job, I work with Maps all the time, and I know its limitations, but compared to its competitors, it’s a short list. Note to self – write soon about Maps. Anyway, Wave promises to let users communicate in a much more collaborative way. Email is basically a faster, digital version of postage, and the Wave developers argue (convincingly, I think) that we can do a lot better than that. For more information on what Wave is (and isn’t), check out the video of its first unveiling early year. (Warning: Video is 80 minutes long and a little technical, but gets the points across)
Internal First
Like I said, there will be some really interesting Wave-based apps coming out in the next year or so. But, for now, the main value of it will not be so much as a tool for communicating between your organization and the community, but instead for handling communication internally. This means that in the short run, this is a tool that is going to be most useful for larger organizations. If you have volunteers and staff in several offices, or even several continents, then a new kind of system for collaborating and sharing ideas might be immediately useful. For smaller organizations, Wave’s usefulness is still a little ways off.
So Why Should You Care?
There are a few reasons that even smaller organizations should care about Google Wave. First, it’s a sign that communication on the web is always changing. Organizations looking to recruit and maintain a community on the web can’t afford to assume that the tools used to do so today will still be useful in a year. Even by just reading up on the release, and checking out Wave-based apps as they come out, you’re keeping up to date and aware of what’s out there. That keeps you and your organization flexible, and as soon as someone comes out with an application that has a direct use for your nonprofit, you can be educated enough about the tool and its uses that you can jump on that chance.
Wave is a very new tool, in fact really still a work in progress, and nonprofits are almost never on the cutting edge of this kind of technology, for better and for worse. However, when a product comes out promising to change how people communicate on the web, and it’s got the backing of a behemoth like Google, it’s worth taking notice. After all, what industry is more concerned with communication and discussion than nonprofits?