The implications of open source and advancement of virtual environments

If open source is to be one of the defining features of Web 3.0 (or whatever handle you wish to use to refer to the next generation of the Internet) in the way that Web 2.0 is largely defined by sociability and community, then this blog would do well not to ignore the release of 100,000 invitations to join the beta test of Google Wave a week or so ago.

Wave is described by Google as an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. The 80 minute online video of Google Wave previewed to developers at Google I/O back in May of this year had been viewed more than 4 million times by the time the invitations were released on 30th September according to The Guardian. No doubt that figure has crept up over the last week or so with increased press coverage of Wave. For those people that have managed to avoid the hype, Google Wave has been designed to merge the functionality of communication tools such as email, instant messaging (IM) and of course everybody’s favourite new kid on the block – social networking. Some of the neater features of Wave include real-time spelling and grammar checks, automated language translation, rich media editing, desktop to browser drag-and-drop (to use Lehman’s terms), etc. all of which is processed in real time and uses concurrency control technology allowing multiple uses to edit the same document, or Wave, at the same time.

At its most ambitious, Wave is hoped (by Google at least) to replace email. As grand as that might sound, you have to hand it to Google – rather than taking on the social networking giants such as Facebook, by building a social networking site that integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Google maps and of course Google search, they are instead looking to replace the very communication infrastructure that supports communication via individual social networking sites. Why aim to be the biggest fish in the pond when instead you could aim to be the actual pond! Wave replacing email is probably not the best way to describe what Google are hoping to achieve; rather Wave is hoped to represent the evolution of the standard methods of communication in the digital age that we have become accustomed to. And it makes sense that what we have learned during Web 2.0 actually goes into the philosophy of the next generation of the web rather than just being bolted onto the side of the web as we know it. 

Of course the success of Google Wave will be determined by uptake and usage, the biggest barrier against which is Google Wave’s incompatibility with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the most widely used web browser in the world. Internet Explorer users are able to use Wave, however they must first download a Chrome Frame plug-in which Microsoft claims causes an increased security risk. Is Microsoft shooting itself in the foot here? If running a browser within a browser does indeed compromise security as Microsoft claim, are users not more likely to convert to Google Chrome for their default web browsing services? With this in mind, did Google deliberately build Wave to be incompatible with Internet Explorer?

Whether or not Wave was built, in some part at least, as a weapon in Google’s artillery in the battle of the browsers, there is one element to Google Wave which I for one remain optimistic about, which ties back into the subject of this blog, and that is the fact that Wave is open source. Open source has proven its popularity, particularly with developers, over the last few years and it is a clear sign of things to come when the big players of the web opt for open source when developing their new products and services. Open source helps to level the playing field, and Google’s announcement of an open source tool such as Wave promises for an exciting, and unpredictable (but all the more exciting for being so) future of the web.