Google Wave looks to Change Online Communication

Google Wave made its debut today at the Google I/O developers conference, and took the conference by storm.

The buzz created has been compared to the iPhone, and conference participants can't stop talking about the demo displayed today of this revolutionary product.

Google is aiming to change the way online communication happens, by combining email, chat, media sharing, links, wiki type of format, and instant messenging (IM), all threaded in one format. Replacing not one but MANY various programs, the excitement about this development is palpable.

From Webmonkey's preview:

A user starts a “wave,” a new thread in the system. At first, it looks just like an e-mail. A wave usually starts as text, but photos can be dragged in, and videos or maps can be embedded. The user invites friends by dragging and dropping names from a list of contacts in a sidebar. New users can start leaving comments in line, setting a break point in the original text and adding a comment directly below the paragraph, photo or whatever piece of the wave they want to comment on. There’s even a built in spell-checker that’s context-sensitive.

As the new user is leaving a comment, everyone involved in the wave can see the comments being typed in, in real time, letter by letter. Edits can be made concurrently, so two or more users can see one anothers’ changes flowing in, even as they’re leaving their comments, making edits or uploading images.

And it really is instantaneous: Google is measuring Wave’s latency in the low milliseconds.

In the past few years, the use of email has depleted in favour of more short-burst communication via SMS (text messages), Facebook, Twitter, etc, but Google's Wave may bring those back to email, as it could contain all the messages into one location. Instead of communicating with someone via 5 different programs, all of these methods of communication could be contained within Wave.

Read more from Webmonkey here. Over the next few days much more is sure to be revealed, as conference attendees have special BETA access.

Amazon Kindle DX Revealed

As expected, Amazon revealed the Kindle DX, a larger, slimmer version of it's HIT e-reader the Kindle.

The new Kindle is squarely aimed at newspapers, a struggling industry that appears destined to move online. While the old Kindle came in with an impressive 6' display with amazing readability.

The DX comes in at an impressive 9.7" display with auto rotation, so it can easily resemble your comfortable newspaper or magazine. The larger display is aimed at better layouts and most importantly, advertising.

Many large newspapers are offering discounted online subscription prices aimed at recapturing declining markets, and it seems inevitable that escalating printing and delivery costs will move the vast majority of newspapers online. There are significant rumours of a Amazon deal pending with The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Serious contacts here.

Where things get even more interesting is the textbook market. It's expected (rumoured from reputable sources) that several large Universities and Colleges in the North-East US will offer textbooks via Kindle DX this fall, as an option for students. Faced with the choice of a back-breaking stack of texts at inflated costs, or an expensive Kindle DX with 4 years of use, the choice will be an interesting one, though it's anticipated this will be the first foray into electronic textbooks. It may be only a matter of time until textbooks for all ages are digital.

Read Fortune's article here.
Cnet's article here.
Wired article here.

Norway Leads the Way

The Norwegian Education system has furthered a project promoting digital literacy among the students, properly funding it unlike the North American systems.

When a Norwegian student turns 16, the Education Ministry provides them a laptop, to keep, to help them with their education. Now, they are further the implementation of these tools by allowing students to write final exams using these personal computers.

This opens up many doors for students, by allowing them to use devices they are familiar with in a locked format to write supervised exams. The University of Manitoba has also approved student-owned devices for writing final exams. Products like ExamSoft and LockedBrowser allow student-owned devices to remain secure during an exam setting.

As students begin to bring their own computers to school with them, following them from class to call, the education system needs to welcome them, allowing open Wi-Fi access, network access, and internet access, supporting their systems and encouraging students to use the tools to help their education. Norway seems to get it. When does Canada come along?

The BBC story about Norway's exam pilot is here.