If you haven't already, watch this right now.
Without the decentralization/federation aspect, this would still be an amazing web app that would wipe out every other communication platform.
But if this thing is completely open and federated when they launch.. if I really can download their server implementation and get my own Wave server running instantly.. and we can hack on any part of the stack, end to end.. then this is, without exaggeration, the biggest fucking deal since NCSA Mosaic, bigger really since that was just a client.
This solves about 3/4 of the current problems with the internet. Communication, collaboration, publishing, interop, extensibility, open standards, early community involvement.. they've got everything covered and from what I can see, they've done it all perfectly. Google has fixed the god damn internet. I was fighting back tears watching this.
A unified standard for human communication is long overdue. I started sketching one out myself a while ago, but I never wrote a line of code. Why bother? Too much to write (if you're not Google) and no way to get critical mass (if you're not Google). I had resigned myself to a future of crippled, insecure silo junk like Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail (yes, it's a silo). And then.. this. Kaboom.
You won't be hearing Twitter brag about how they have no features and a character limit anymore. You probably won't be hearing about them at all in a few years. They add no functional value to communication.. they are architectural middle-men and Wave mends the wound they were sucking on.
Facebook can win big if they start integrating with (more like migrating to) this now, but they might have to turn their code upside down. For any app that is not just a stopgap or glue, that has actual functionality, or anybody who has unrealized visions for such an app, Wave is a very very good thing.
Email is finished. Spam is finished.
A lot of existing code will be thrown out, things will be a lot simpler, and developers will start working on entirely new classes of problems.
I've never been a big Google fan, but this redeems them for any lapses in their once believable "don't be evil" policy. In fact, this kind of fanaticism is not like me at all, but this is the real deal. Remember where you were.
Without the decentralization/federation aspect, this would still be an amazing web app that would wipe out every other communication platform.
But if this thing is completely open and federated when they launch.. if I really can download their server implementation and get my own Wave server running instantly.. and we can hack on any part of the stack, end to end.. then this is, without exaggeration, the biggest fucking deal since NCSA Mosaic, bigger really since that was just a client.
This solves about 3/4 of the current problems with the internet. Communication, collaboration, publishing, interop, extensibility, open standards, early community involvement.. they've got everything covered and from what I can see, they've done it all perfectly. Google has fixed the god damn internet. I was fighting back tears watching this.
A unified standard for human communication is long overdue. I started sketching one out myself a while ago, but I never wrote a line of code. Why bother? Too much to write (if you're not Google) and no way to get critical mass (if you're not Google). I had resigned myself to a future of crippled, insecure silo junk like Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail (yes, it's a silo). And then.. this. Kaboom.
You won't be hearing Twitter brag about how they have no features and a character limit anymore. You probably won't be hearing about them at all in a few years. They add no functional value to communication.. they are architectural middle-men and Wave mends the wound they were sucking on.
Facebook can win big if they start integrating with (more like migrating to) this now, but they might have to turn their code upside down. For any app that is not just a stopgap or glue, that has actual functionality, or anybody who has unrealized visions for such an app, Wave is a very very good thing.
Email is finished. Spam is finished.
A lot of existing code will be thrown out, things will be a lot simpler, and developers will start working on entirely new classes of problems.
I've never been a big Google fan, but this redeems them for any lapses in their once believable "don't be evil" policy. In fact, this kind of fanaticism is not like me at all, but this is the real deal. Remember where you were.