Google Wave
Went to the Google Wave API Day at the Sydney Googleplex last Friday.
The developer preview from this years’ Google I/O is quite extensive in explaining the features and functionality of Google Wave. At one hour 20 minutes running time it may require a significant chunk of free time to sit down and watch it, but the presentation is thorough in its explanation of Google Wave and well worth a watch.
For those that -really- don’t have the time to sit down and watch a presentation on impressionable new technologies, there is a 10-minute ‘abbreviated’ version also available.
Finally, for those that don’t work in the IT industry, there is a ‘Made Simple‘ video made by a fan.
There is also a rather extensive background and explanation available on Wikipedia for both Google Wave and the Wave Federation Protocol.
Essentially, “Google Wave” comprises of two things; the front-end client “Google Wave” and the “Federation” protocol.
To grasp the concept of separating the two, think of how “Gmail” relates to Email as a whole.
i.e. Email has many providers, and for you to send an email from one provider to another, they must conform to a set of protocols. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to send an email from your personal email account hosted with your ISP to all the various accounts of your friends and family (who may have accounts with Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, etc).