May 28th, 2009
Let's All Do the Wave ...
Ah, yes.
Just what we need. And, oh, yes, it’s inevitable.
An inbox that pulls together every email sent your way. Every instant message sent your way. Every image. Every social network message. Etc.
If that’s what Google Wave does, fine. If not, fohgeddaboutit.
What’s needed in this era of ever-expanding methods of communication is one simplified way of dealing with it all.
You’re probably not tired of checking your email and your LinkedIn page and your Facebook account and your Twitter stream for messages that matter. You are probably pining for more place to check on more pieces of communication from more people you don’t know around the world.
So, yes, we need now something beyond email that coalesces every type of communication sent our way. And allows us to respond effectively at any juncture.
But Google’s Wave, however cool, looks to me like a variant of a wiki. A way to get multiple parties to edit different types of content and see who said what at what point.
Doesn’t make me sit upright in my office chair.
Maybe it’s just me.
But what is really relevant now, in an era of media and communication overload, is a way to curtail the amount of media that needs to be commented on.
Will the wave prioritize communications — or just consolidate everything that is coming at a user?
The outfit that figures out a way to automate the sifting, editing and elevating of communications that matter — and that’s very subjective — will be the next Google.
Yes, we’ll need to pull together all forms of digital communications into one funnel and allow ad hoc commentary on same. Yet the fallout of allowing additional conversation on same will be to just increase stress on individual participants. There can be too much communication to keep up with.
The opportunity now is to automate the process of focusing attention, more than extending it.
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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