Google Wave Book

Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's SVP for Product Management recently posted some thoughts about the "meaning of open" in the context of Google's efforts. I won't dissect all of the points that Jonathan has made, although I encourage you to review his post to get a better idea of how Google approaches open technology and open information. However, I do think it's worthwhile to informally review a few salient points relevant to Google Wave, which itself is a relatively open platform.

Jonathan argues that open systems win. That is to say, open systems are mutually beneficial for companies, users, developers, and everybody in between. He states that open systems lead to competition that ultimately leads to better, more innovative products:

Open systems are just the opposite. They are competitive and far more dynamic. In an open system, a competitive advantage doesn't derive from locking in customers, but rather from understanding the fast-moving system better than anyone else and using that knowledge to generate better, more innovative products. The successful company in an open system is both a fast innovator and a thought leader; the brand value of thought leadership attracts customers and then fast innovation keeps them.

This point sheds some light on the launch of Google Wave as a relatively open platform. Google could have launched Google Wave as a closed system (platform), with the goal of garnering and locking in users to a new model of communication and collaboration. Instead, Google Wave reflects several tiers of openness, from its product (client) and APIs, both of which are freely and easily accessible, to the open source network protocol that will eventually yield a federated set of wave providers. Since its initial release Google Wave has been an extremely open platform. This openness has given way to innovation driven both by Google's internal response to user feedback (early-on in the product's development) and by third parties that have utilized and adopted the APIs and network protocol to extend the platform quite rapidly. In this sense, Google has gained the competitive advantage by being a thought leader (i.e., by releasing Google Wave) and by understanding its own, yet highly open system, better than anyone else.

Open systems have the potential to spawn industries. They harness the intellect of the general population and spur businesses to compete, innovate, and win based on the merits of their products and not just the brilliance of their business tactics. The race to map the human genome is one example.

To date we have seen quite a bit of activity by developers who have begun to integrate Google Wave with other services, be they social networks or enterprise systems. And I think that we're just at the very beginning of seeing Google Wave's potential to spawn a new ecosystem, and subsequently new industries, that revolve around the platform's long tail (much in the same way we've seen the long tail of Google Maps). Its openness has significant implications, as it attracts third party development, yet it also breeds competition.  We're still at the early stages of Google Wave, however, so the long tail and competition are not nearly as prominent as they could (and likely will) eventually be. Towards the end of his post, Jonathan hits the nail on the head:

Closed systems are well-defined and profitable, but only for those who control them. Open systems are chaotic and profitable, but only for those who understand them well and move faster than everyone else. Closed systems grow quickly while open systems evolve more slowly, so placing your bets on open requires the optimism, will, and means to think long term. Fortunately, at Google we have all three of these. Because of our reach, technical know-how, and lust for big projects, we can take on big challenges that require large investments and lack an obvious, near-term pay-off. We can photograph the world's streets so that you can explore the neighborhood around an apartment you are considering renting from a thousand miles away. We can scan millions of books and make them widely accessible (while respecting the rights of publishers and authors). We can create an email system that gives away a gigabyte of storage (now over 7 gigs) at a time when all other services allow only a small fraction of that amount. We can instantly translate web pages from any of 51 languages. We can process search data to help public health agencies detect flu outbreaks much earlier. We can build a faster browser (Chrome), a better mobile operating system (Android), and an entirely new communications platform (Wave), and then open them up for the world to build upon, customize, and improve. We can do these things because they are information problems and we have the computer scientists, technology, and computational power to solve them. When we do, we make numerous platforms - video, maps, mobile, PCs, voice, enterprise - better, more competitive, and more innovative. We are often attacked for being too big, but sometimes being bigger allows us to take on the impossible.

Skeptics and competitors alike have criticized Google Wave in varying degrees, but I think it's still too early to tell (I also remember hearing from skeptics doubting the viability of Twitter).  As Jonathan states, "open systems evolve more slowly, so placing your bets on open requires the optimism, will, and means to think long term."  Google Wave is not a one-trick pony, it is a broad and sophisticated platform.  Couple that with making it open and accessible early on during its development, and you may understand that the vision for Google Wave requires long term optimism. Reinventing email to provide a new model (and corresponding network protocol) for real-time communication and collaboration is not easy.  But few companies out there have the economies of scale that Google does.  "We are often attacked for being too big, but sometimes being bigger allows us to take on the impossible."  To some it may seem that moving something like Google Wave forward is impossible, but that seems to be part of the point.  Google's resources, its size, and dare I say its inertia, are part of what give Google Wave a real chance of becoming an established and successful platform in the long term.