It's a lonely (social) life

I'm still to play with Google Wave ...

... but one thing I am hearing from Google Wave newbies, is that they're 'lonely' there.

At least, that's my interpretation.

I've seen tweets and comments like: 'Why is nobody waving at me?' 'I'm here .. now what?' and 'Um, I have Google Wave. Anyone want invites? Maybe I can finally make it a fun thing if I have contacts".

Like any online social or collaboration tool, it doesn't make sense unless you have your peeps there with you.

It reminds me of when I started out on Twitter. Landed there, set my profile, wrote my first tweet .. and, then what? It took me a while to follow people who tweeted anything meaningful with me. To build up contacts (and understand the context).

But after a few lonely forays, where I felt like I was butting into people's conversations, Twitter became a lively meeting place for me, full of knowledge-sharing and new (crazy) online friends.

Today, I'm still hearing Twitter newbies complain that they "don't get it". I always remind them: you need to stay on; reply to people; interact. It's not all about posting your own thoughts or links. It must be two-way.

I'm convinced this will happen with Google Wave. When it reaches its critical mass, it will take off. It's built around interactions - and that's pretty darn hard when you've only got a few mates there. It may be lonely now, but watch and see it evolve.

(Oh, and invite your friends, help them learn with you along the way .. and wave at me!)