The training wheels are coming off

(Last Updated On: May 30, 2009)

If you have been following this blog, podcast or have attended one of my talks around the country you have been listening to me cry  that social media is not a waste of time. I’ve claimed the tools available today are the training wheels for how we will be doing business in the future.

Over the last couple of days Google has rolled out a preview of a new platform called Google Wave.  It is everything and more that we’ve said would be coming our way.

The training wheels are coming off.

I have been shouting from the rooftops that the future of business is collaboration. If you plan on being a business person, you need to understand the best practices, social media etiquette, and how to use these social media tools.

I’m working on a big project with a marketing director of a hospital, a writer, a designer and a design agency owner. Oh, what this platform would do to improve the group’s communication and productivity on this four-month project.

All of our communications would be in one place,  while still allowing private thoughts between the editors. People could be added to the conversation and have access to a full history and progression of the project to date. The marketing director and designer could edit photographs in real time. Calendars and schedules could be easily coordinated. No more lost e-mails.  The possibilities are endless.

I’m sure you have or had projects that could easily benefit from such streamlined collaboration.  Even better news: It will be available on our smart phones, too.

Wave will be an open-source system allowing programmers to create incredibly cool and advanced tools making business communication and collaboration easier and more streamlined than ever.

There will be other platforms like Wave that will not just change business communication, but family communication, conferencing and e-mail. (Could this be the end of e-mail?) This also will change gaming, education, blogging, news gathering , search, public social media integration and digital file management.

Thank you to Mitch Joel for the heads up that the video was available. It’s a long video, but worth your time.