Apache open sourcers welcome Google's unwanted Wave

Google's "clever" but misunderstood Wave is getting a fresh shot at life with open-sourcers at the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). The Mountain View Chocolate Factory, Novell, and a handful of others have submitted client and server code to ASF for what's now called Wave in a Box (WIAB). The code is available as an …

[lokanadam]

google wave = facebook messages

I was wondering if google wave found an avatar as facebook messages, how r they different ?

[Joe 19]

It's a shame they killed it....

It was a really good idea, but outside of a few niche users, no-one really saw it's potential.

Nice to hear the Apache people are going to get it :)

A group of us in AU/NZ were using it for managing a web site (writing up ideas for articles, Rules and Regs, etc), and we found that Google Wave was brilliant.

Everyone could add their ideas (or smart-ass comments) in realtime, and despite inital fears that it would turn into an utter mess, it was really quite organised.

Hope Apache does something with it soon, as we'll miss Google wave when it closes up :(

[Anonymous Coward]

"US Navy's usage of wave"

.. and the reporter glossed over it like it was not even there.

[DrXym]

Wave could have been a huge success

I started Wave up and couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell I was meant to do exactly. The UI was too open with no obvious "start here". The second problem I thought was Google should have thrown free voice conference facilities into it that worked with phone and IP (Google Voice, Skype). The latter option would have incentivized people to check it out, while their absence made it a WTF venture.

I expect that the open source Wave will probably address the former issue and someone is bound to commercialize it and produce the latter. The wonder is why Google didn't do it.

[PhilipN]

Reality Check

Echo above comments.

There's me thinking I am a smart interested non-technical user (El Reg's only OS/2 devotee - yes I am) having played around on the net and fiddled around inside the case for years and now never reading manuals on principle and I too could not work out WTF I am supposed to do with something which sounds like a great idea. But for what exactly?

Gives sad profile to MS policy of dumbing everything down to reach maximum usage.

Is there an SMS acronym BTTDB or BTSO? (back to the drawing board/square one).

Greetings to all and, in this mood, up yours

[Anonymous Coward]

Well...

When the 'wave' of media and people asking for invites came, I asked in several forums I frequented for a one paragraph definition of what it was, and as far as I recall, no-one could tell me, even those who were using it.

If it's not possible to gloss over the fiddly bits to provide a one paragraph definition, it's probably not that well thought out...

[Mitch Kent]

Looked like it could be useful for tracking the progress of bugs and fixes

But as its google hosted we could never test it out. Give us an open source server we can host and maybe we might be able to make some use of it...