243533 Resource 187691 21 21 1255579562719 1255580367999 Controlled Google Wave Security Gotcha!

The Google Wave UI makes it really, really easy to accidentally publish information to the wrong people.

<img title="Google Wave" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="184" alt="Google Wave" src="http://faseidl.com/docs/google-wave-logo-1_3.jpg" width="189" align="right" border="0">I've been using Google Wave seriously for a few weeks and I really like it.  But, right now anyway, its a very scary place to do anything important. Wave is real-time.  Instant messaging (IM) seems downright sluggish by comparison while e-mail seems positively glacial.  Wave is a communication and collaboration power tool. But wave is in its infancy.  Doing real, mission critical work in wave is like driving a fast car or carrying a loaded pistol before safety belts or trigger locks were invented. One of the ways you shoot yourself in the foot with wave is you can invite the wrong participant into a wave.  Very easily. Suppose you are collaborating with a peer via wave on an negotiation strategy for a potential technology acquisition.  You're weighing the pros and cons of various negotiation tactics and how the other party might react to each.  Once you're settling in on a strategy you think will work, you decide to invite your CFO into the wave to get her take on the overall plan. But... By unhappy coincidence, the other party's lead negotiator's name is alphabetically close to your CFO's and you accidentally double click his name in wave's Add participants dialog box.  Bang!  Gaping hole right through the middle of your foot.  Your wave appears in his wave inbox.  No confirmation prompt; no undo; no recovery. I'm sure this is something that Google will fix.  And there will be other wave clients with even better UIs.  But for now, there are no safety belts or trigger locks. <h3>Bottom line...</h3> I love Google Wave.  I think it is an important nascent communication paradigm and underlying protocol.  But everything about it is so new that you should expect hiccups.  If you like being on the bleeding edge, I recommend that you give it a try, keep an open mind, and be very careful (even slightly paranoid) every time you see the Add participants dialog box. 10 application/xml security technology Google wave false MySmartChannels/6 (mailto:info@myst-technology.com; MyST Blogsite MetaWeblog API 6.00.0627) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aseidl 205.145.142.200 false true false false true 188081 false false true false false false true 243651 Resource 188081 173239 21 1255628781757 1255640220830 Controlled RE: Google Wave Security Gotcha!

I appreciate the last paragraph, the bottom line section.  It made me OK with everything above it...everything that is centered around USER error and NOT a system error. I think though to many people are writing little bits like this and not including the fact that Gwave is barely an alpha product and may be wholly different when it enters the beta stage or even RTM. People who don't put two and two together are going to think Gwave is lacking because you aren't pointing out the painfully obvious development stage it resides in currently and I don't think that is fair to Google! 10 application/xml false Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 74.94.143.210 false true false false true 243659 Resource 188081 173239 21 1255640342124 1255640816148 Controlled RE: Google Wave Security Gotcha!

@Inacurate

I completely agree the Gotcha I point out is an artifact of wave's infancy.  My intent was not to knock Google in any way--I very much like wave (and made that point in the very first sentence).  But I did intend to point out the fact that it is very easy (currently) to shoot yourself in the foot.  Sure, it's technically a case of pilot error if you do, but that won't make it hurt any less. 10 application/xml false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; GTB6.3; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aseidl 68.40.167.222 false true false false true 187691 blog blogsite/FASeidl/web