A Move to Google Wave?
One of the items on the plate is a change of content management system for MMM. Due to a change that's happening with Blogger - effective near the end of March - FTP publishing will not be doable. This takes away something that has been a solid feature and advantage for MMM. And while this change is understood, it does mean a change.
So besides looking at content management systems like WordPress, TypePad, and Drupal, one of the thoughts that has kind of come back around is the idea of using Google Wave as the landing place for MMM. One, the ability to instantly allow people to embrace the discussion here would be much easier. There would also be a much easier route towards not just finding content, but also people that connect with it.
The downsides are that Google Wave currently sits as a Google-served product - so without a Google account there's a problem. Also, until I can become a bit clearer about running an MMM specific Wave server, I'm not sure that there's enough time in the day to play admin to something that would be cool, but would also have its share of issues.
So I'm kind of putting this out here - and on Twitter, and on Wave - to hear from you. What would you think of MMM going to Google Wave? Or, if there's an open source solution that's similar (and won't get bought out in the next 5min), what would you recommend and why?
Labels: CMS, collaboration, Google Wave
9 Comments:
Friday, February 26, 2010 10:17:00 AM |
wezlo
Bunch o'comments
Wave's not ready for something like this- at at present it would end up being so chaotic that I'm not sure how it'll work.
It's better now than when the preview first started (I no longer lose posts when the wave server decides it doesn't want to sync) - but I don't trust embedding it on another site yet. It's an alpha, after all.
Friday, February 26, 2010 10:20:00 AM |
Antoine
Bunch o'comments
:) All I can say right now is that for what MMM has been, it won't continue, and Wave is "a direction" towards where MMM is going.
But you bring up items that have been sitting inside my head as well about the positives and negatives.
Let me ask this: what does Wave do well?
Friday, February 26, 2010 11:02:00 AM |
sernaferna
Bunch o'comments
You might be right that having your own Wave server might be the right way to go, rather than using the Google Wave infrastructure--but, similar to wezlo's comment, Wave probably isn't ready for that. I'd think that we'd want to wait until Wave gets out of the preview stage, before implementing our own Wave servers. (Maybe I'm just playing it too safe; if people don't create their own Wave servers, then how will interoperability ever be tested?)
From a practical standpoint, I've tried using Wave on my iPhone, and it's still extremely slow. So if people are viewing your blog from mobile devices, will Wave make the experience painful for them? I'm hoping not. (And I'm hoping they'll speed things up for the iPhone anyway.)
I've had numerous thoughts on Google Wave; it could very well be a paradigm shifter, but, at the same time, I'm often wrong about these things. But using Wave technologies for blogs is one aspect the Wave folks are definitely targeting, so your idea is spot on with where the technology is going. How it ends up working--as wezlo says, whether it will become chaotic--remains to be seen. If Wave really is paradigm shifting, then we can't properly predict how it will pan out.
My wave ID is sernaferna@googlewave.com, if you'd like to continue the conversation there. But regardless, I'm very interested to see if and how Wave is useful for you, whether in this blog or in other aspects.
Friday, February 26, 2010 11:20:00 AM |
Antoine
Bunch o'comments
Will come back to link this post to the Twitter chat, and (somehow) to the discussion on Wave. If you'd like to be added to the wave discussion find us on wave via mobileministrymagazine (at) googlewave and we can chat.
The mobile aspect of things isn't overlooked, and is one of the reasons that I'm putting this out there. Mobile first applies here, even more than it does for Google.
Friday, February 26, 2010 1:45:00 PM |
Kevin Purcell
Bunch o'comments
Sounds like a great idea. That way I will never have to read your stuff again. And it will help with reducing traffic to your busy site. I say go for it.
As you can tell, I'm being sarcastic. Wave is not ready and I think you would be ill advised to rely on it for something like this. My opinion is jump on WordPress or Foursquare. I use WP and it is pretty easy to use.
Friday, February 26, 2010 2:16:00 PM |
Antoine
Bunch o'comments
Hehehe, Kevin; advice heard :)
I'll frame my response to you similar in similar words to what I did for your CCMag piece about Digital Bible studies: the implications of mobile being nearer to the front of the minds of folks makes this CMS not as useful for enablement at the intersection of faith and mobile tech. How MMM answers its mission is tied into how the tech is used as an engagement tool.
Friday, February 26, 2010 2:56:00 PM |
wezlo
Bunch o'comments
Antoine, Wave really doesn't do ANYTHING "well." It's an alpha version of an entirely new platform, the fact that it works at ALL is an absolute marvel.
Even with the kinks, though, the way I've seen Wave used best is by people doing collaborative planning. Conversations targeting a specific project start and branch, and then as needs grow other people join in and are able to trace how the conversation built so they can have a better context to add their points.
This is how my denominational region is using it, at least. In the future I expect that google will integrate Gizmo3 and GV into wave (actually, I think the acquisition of Gizmo is what's slow the roll out of new features in wave) - that way there's a voice channel to work with the text channel (right now people accomplish the same thing in skype). What I know is that having a traceable record and the ability to respond in real-time has saved the folks planning events a HUGE amount of time because they don't have to have two or three meetings to decide things that can be handled in two or three posts in Wave.
Friday, February 26, 2010 7:48:00 PM |
David
Bunch o'comments
I agree that it would be a great place to put MMM but it needs a lot of work still. Besides, if you think getting a Google Voice invite is hard wait for a Google Wave. ;)
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 9:57:00 AM |
Antoine
Bunch o'comments
@David, GWave invites aren't that hard, and that's only the case right now that there are invites. Nevertheless, one just needs to be invited, and that's pretty easy - especially if someone is already using Google's services.
Post a Comment@sernaferna - the mobile aspect of Wave is something that's keeps me from having done it already. And not iPhone mobile, but *everyone else mobile.* As much as I'd like to take the "site" out of MMM and let it be content streams that you can pull into whatever browser, reader, etc. that you choose, this audience isn't ready for that much control over things... yet.
@wezlo - collaboration is a great thing to foster. And any kind of collaboration that leads to the direct solving of issues, or the building of knowledge and understanding so that later issues can be better addressed is a core principle of MMM. Hence the appeal of Wave/Etherpad/etc. Collaborating towards mobile solutions, with mobile now in the heads of several persons, would be the way to take this conversation. Whether there's some kind of technology that allows this to happen seamlessly or not is something that I'm looking into. That being said, I've been looking without much success - a blog format isn't it.
What are the implications of the knowledge being available, and people are just looking to connect with those who get it done? What does this site and similar sites do when the audience no longer is "learning how to read" but needs to "learn how to apply?"