Is this the Future of Google Wave Servers? I think so…
I'm a big fan of Google Wave, but I think it's really hard to imagine using in conjunction with e-mail. And it seems to me that the chatty, e-maily features that you see in your browser might not be the really important future of Wave. The UI is cool, don't get me wrong, and it shows off how flexible the system is for message relay between any number of collaborators... but what intrigues me is the underlying server technology.
Beneath the UI, there is an open-source server technology that really makes me think about the future of the web. The web that's steadily enveloping its users. The Wave Federation Protocol is built on XMPP and designed to integrate easily and securely with other Wave servers, allowing information in a Wave to be shared easily with those permitted access. Also, information changed in a wave is updated in nearly real-time (given a sufficiently fast server and connection).
Imagine a federated wave server running on hardware the size of your Nexus One? And your refrigerator. And your car, washing machine, etc... Even your house. All these information aware devices in your home communicating with your house, and each other, about: power consumption, maintenance needs, inventory (gas, cucumbers, toilet paper, water filters) and anything else that comes up. All shared with the dashboard app on your Nexus One to remind you that it might be a good idea to turn off the A/C while the rates are high. Or writing a grocery list on your slate computer, knowing what's in the refrigerator and whether it's gone bad. All of these devices working in unison doesn't necessarily need to be supported by Wave, but it seems like a possibility. And all of these devices getting smarter and easier and more reliable, making your information rich environment that much more effective and efficient... for better or worse.
This guy knows what I'm talking about:
"What do we need? We need a really good webserver you can put in your pocket and plug in any place. In other words, it shouldn’t be any larger than the charger for your cell phone and you should be able to plug it in to any power jack in the world and any wire near it or sync it up to any wifi router that happens to be in its neighborhood. It should have a couple of USB ports that attach it to things. It should know how to bring itself up. It should know how to start its web server, how to collect all your stuff out of the social networking places where you’ve got it. It should know how to send an encrypted backup of everything to your friends’ servers. It should know how to microblog. It should know how to make some noise that’s like tweet but not going to infringe anybody’s trademark. In other words, it should know how to be you …oh excuse me I need to use a dangerous word - avatar - in a free net that works for you and keeps the logs. You can always tell what’s happening in your server and if anybody wants to know what’s happening in your server they can get a search warrant."
Eben Moglen - Freedom In the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy, and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing