A New Opportunity for Public Relations

By Kelsey Tindle

COM 509 – Fall 2010

Google Wave is a unique new approach to real time communication online. The new platform combines email, instant messaging, document collaboration and browser functionality for communication in real time and the resulting “wave” is accessible in a single window.

You can then drag and drop contacts or extensions into the real time conversation. Portions of the wave can also be played back or edited by users who may have missed some of the conversation

The real time communication means that Wave reports exactly what you’re typing as you’re typing the characters

Information from SS PR Firm’s Blog: http://sspr.com/public-relations-blogging/online-communications-concept

Google Wave emerged from the question, “Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication… Could a single communication model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it?”

In the creator Lars Rassmussen’s own words; “A ‘wave’ is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more”.

Quote pulled from MyMediaInfo Blog: http://blog.mymediainfo.com/mymediainfo-blog/?p=163(Generated from a StumbleUpon search)

This short video introduces and explains Google Wave:

http://www.youtube.com/user/googlewave

To summarize:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Google Wave has had some kinks in the past, but the company has made many improvements to the application. Google Wave now sends you emails when waves change and it is easier to navigate to unread parts of a wave. You can also remove participants added by mistake, and Google has added a new extensions gallery.

Information from the Social Media Today Blog: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/108923

What are people using Wave for? Personal Education Business Journalism Organizations and conferences

What are developers building for the future of Wave? Productivity gadgets Communications tools Rich-media gadgets Games

Businesses: Co-workers at many different companies are using Wave. From writing software code at Lyn and Line and coordinating ad campaigns at Clear Channel Radio to international project communications for Deloitte’s As One project Google Wave is an easy way to communicate between co-workers.

Education: University students and professors worldwide have used waves in and out of the classroom. Waves have been used to collaborate on Latin poetry translations and to write academic research papers. Some teachers even feel that students learn better from the interactivity that Wave offers than with traditional reading.

Creative collaboration: Waves make it easier for groups to review and critique multimedia content like images and videos. Waves can be used to create virtual art classes or write online guides. Some people have even been experimenting with the uses for Wave in the gaming world.

Organizations and conferences: The Debatewise Global Youth panel used waves to explore climate change across 100 countries at the eComm (Emerging Communication Conference). LCA 2010 conference and HASTAC 2010 used Wave to help track speaking sessions. Waves are being used in the same way at the Google I/O conference. Wave allows people at conferences or lectures to communicate simultaneously with each other and even create their own collaborative version of the lecture’s notes.

Journalism: Mashable has used Wave to interview journalists on the future of journalism and The Seattle Times experimented with a public Wave to develop their Pulitzer Prize-winning news coverage. ChicagoNow also experimented with ways to use waves to engage their userbase.

Information gathered from the Google Wave Website -http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html

Here are some more of Google Wave’s most useful innovative features:

Embedding: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.

Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

Key features according to Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

In addition, Google Wave has somewhat of its own language and understanding these key terms will help you understand Google Wave more:

Wave: A wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison I can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.

Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation – a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.

Blip: Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).

Document: A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.

Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave. So these are the apps you can play with while using Wave. There are two main types of extensions: Gadgets and Robots

Gadgets: A gadget is an application users can participate with, many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform. A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.

Robots: Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. Twitter) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).

Embedded Wave: An embedded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chat room, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

Terms and definitions from Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Google Wave combines all elements of social media including micro-blogging, blogging, Twittering, RSS and many other tools and will definitely have an impact on the way information is transferred in the PR industry.

With the addition of Google Wave everyone becomes a journalist. The real-time functionality that the application offers allows anyone to create and publish PR and report news. News stories can be published by regular citizens as well as traditional journalists. This will pose a challenge to PR professionals because they are now facing a 24 hour news cycle that never sleeps.

Google Wave also redefines the way PR people communicate with their publics. Instead of sending out lots of press releases, PR professionals can communicate with target publics in real time, and also receive their feedback immediately. Valeria Maltoni from Conversation Agent describes this development by saying that Google Wave “treats media as a process, where the truth could emerge from many voices and forms”.

Google Wave will not replace traditional PR methods, but it will offer another way for PR professionals to communicate in real time with their publics and to interact with them in ways that were not previously possible.

Quote pulled from MyMediaInfo Blog: http://blog.mymediainfo.com/mymediainfo-blog/?p=163

These Google Wave extensions are particularly useful for PR so add them and start experimenting today!

Bloggy- publishes the content of waves to a blog site. Add blog-wave@appspot.com to your contact list and test it out yourself.

Bit.ly-bot- Add bitly-bot@appspot.com to your contact list and then add this user whenever you want to shorten URLs inside Waves. It will do that automatically. You can also use the same Wave just to shorten the URL whenever needed.

iWave- Allows you to create a profile on Wave by using Facebook connect. To use iWave, open a new Wave, click on the green button, and add this widget URL: http://gadget.wave.to/iWave/iWave.xml

Starify- allows you to bookmark Waves. Add Starify’s email address to your contact list: starifybot@appspot.com and then you are able to keep track of all your starred waves. Add Starify user to any wave you want to bookmark, then type the following commands:

1. /star’ Star a wave2. /list’ See all your starred waves3. /delete’ Remove starred waves

From the Google Wave Website: http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html