I’ve now had four days on Google Wave (if you want a quick primer, go here) and I really dig what it could mean for future office collaboration and editing. Not to mention how it will change the way we think about email.

It’s hard to explain what Wave really is, but I’m having fun with it. At this point though it’s very much like hubby describes it: “a glorified chat room.”

We’ll need more folks Waving with us (only 10 of my contacts have Wave access) — and more features, Gmail integration, etc — before we’ll really discover and appreciate its potential. In the meantime, a few quick observations:

Potential use I love most:

Live editing – in theory, you could invite the five folks who have to review and approve your copy/press release/statement/etc. to a Wave and everyone could tear up your draft make their edits while the everyone else is watching in real-time. Within minutes, you could have an approved draft for release; and if someone wanted to see how those edits were made, by whom and in what order, you can invite them to that Wave to “play back” the conversation.

Thing that scares me:

Folks must watch you type: at this point, anything you type is visible to the person you are Waving with — as you are typing. So all those typos and Freudian slips will unfold like a train wreck. Not cool, Google. I’m ready for that little “Draft” box to actually be clickable so I don’t break out into a sweat when I start putting thoughts to pixels.

Oh, and I’m not ignoring you JM, AH, Matt, TL, etc. Although I received my Wave invite because Dave shared one with me, I don’t yet have invites to send around. If/when I am granted some, I’ll share! I promise!

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