The upcoming release and anticipation of “Google Wave” could fundamentally change how journalists perform their work. Everyone’s talking about it. From the financial industry to your local small business shop owners, the prospects of Google Wave and what it promises could have a tsunami-like impact on how we communicate and interact with the each other.
Here’s what some LA Times journalists are saying.How Google Wave could transform journalism.
“We’re not going to e-mail our co-writers with every new lead and minute detail we dig up. But if we’re sharing a virtual notebook, we can scan through…or search the newest findings as they’re logged, make comments and highlight our favorite bits. Then, when it comes time to write, we can rearrange and discuss the story’s flow in the same software. Thanks to the openness of Wave, collaborative pieces between bloggers could become more common.
Having worked at a major network news organization (CBC) in Canada, Google Wave’s promises is no different then what broadcast journalists and television producers use in newsrooms to communicate and perform their work with software tools like AVID iNews, AVID DTV, access to subscription wire services offered by Reuters, APTN, CNN etc. However, that said, what makes Google Wave so groundbreaking is its open source platform and interface. Will we see the 24/7 newsroom open to the public? Readers, viewers, bloggers and news junkies could very well have the opportunity in real-time to become instant breakers, aggregators and collaborators of a major news story.
