Built on Collaboration

Paul Wilkinson blogged on ExtranetEvolution in July about Google Wave and project collaboration. Paul's view is that "Like me, she (Jodie Myers) reckons that Wave is unlikely to replace construction project-specific document management systems for major projects, but reckons it could be used to manage small projects, and perhaps to improve management of meetings, form processing and photo management." I too believe that Wave is unlikely to replace specific construction collaboration tools, but I am not sure that is the point. I see Wave as a component and enabler of collaboration tools, rather than a replacement. As an example, all the construction collaboration tools on the market use email as a component of their solution - it is not a question of one or the other. Software developers often use components to make up a solution, and I see Google Wave as one of those components.