Last night I had my first chance to use Google Wave in a truly collaborative project instead of just a sandbox. I'm in Minneapolis, MN and I'm working on a WordPress theme for a client with a friend who is in Fargo, ND. I started by copying a list of to-do's from an email into a new Wave and then I invited everyone involved.
The first useful thing that happened right away is that a discussion ensued about how to tackle each item on the list and who was going to do the work. Next some instructions for checking the theme out in Subversion. Then later at night the real fun began.
@toddfromfargo and I started up a chat session together. Then we started coding. One by one we went down the list. If he made changes he committed them in Subversion and I would update my copy & visa versa. I spent the night flipping between chat, Wave, the command line and Textmate until everything was crossed off our list.
Then in the morning @jeffjenson logged in and made some more notes. Tonight: repeat.
There has been a lot of excitement about Wave, but the real question is still, is it useful? After finally getting to use it on a real project I can say it definitely is. Previously tracking all those changes might have meant a string of 15 or 20 emails. Now everything is in one place and it's still being updated as I write. Thumbs up.
Posted via email from Truetone