There are a lot of blog posts about getting started with Google Wave, and I did not think that another one was necessary, until one of my readers posted a comment asking how to get started, so here is my take on the best way to get started on Google Wave.
The first thing you should do when you get your google wave invite and login is to look around, and get familiar with the interface. Read the welcome waves that google provides, and just generally see what is going on. You might want to also look at the available keyboard shortcuts.
Create a wave to play around in, just with yourself as the only participant. Here, you can try out some of the extensions, and see how they work. Once you are ready, you can always invite more people to join you in testing. If you are struggling to think of people, feel free to invite me (plosiguant@googlewave.com). Waving with other people will give you a chance to see the real time and collaborative nature of wave.
The next step would be to check out the public waves (just do a search for “with:public” + whatever keyword you are interested in). This way you will get to see what other people are using wave for, and you can always join whichever waves seem interesting to you.
Feel free to join in the discussion on any public waves that you find interesting. In my experience, all the people on Google wave are friendly and supportive. You might want to read my article on wave etiquette before you start posting, first.
You might also want to think of a project that you would like to use Google Wave for, either as part of your work, or for your own personal interests. If you want to you can join a public Wave project, such as the Writing Project (a collaborative novel written on wave by anybody willing to do so), or the Complete Wave Guide (A book about how to use google wave, written as a Wave).
And the most important thing about getting started with Wave (or anything else) is: Enjoy yourself… Play around with the features and searches, and see what you can come up with (and if it is something interesting, tell me about it!).
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