Earlier this week I was given an invite to Google Wave. (I won’t say who invited me so that she’s not bombarded with invite requests. Sorry, I also don’t have any invites to give). Google Wave has been much talked about since Google initially introduced the concept earlier this year. When I got the invite I jumped right on it. I haven’t had much time to explore it yet, but I have formed some initial impressions.

So far I like the ability to have threaded conversations with more than one person at a time. It’s much like a message board only it can work in real-time. In fact, it’s so real-time that you see the other people typing each letter and word. The widgets that you can add to a Wave allow you to have threaded conversations about a map, poll, video, or other media file. In one of my Waves there was a discussion of where to place a placemark on a map that we were looking at.

From a personal learning network standpoint, Google Wave could be a powerful addition to your existing PLN tools. In Google Wave, you can easily add people to a conversation at any time. For example if I start a conversation with person “X” either one of us can add another person from either of our contacts lists. This allows users to make introductions across contact lists.

I’m looking forward to exploring some of the many options in Google Wave, but so far I see it as a powerful networking and conversation platform.

The video below gives a concise explanation of Google Wave.