Google Wave Federation Protocol Code / Setup

One of the more mysterious parts of the Google Wave environment is the core operations of wave communications.
  • How does the server work?
  • How can you develop in-house tools to keep wave communications behind the firewall?
  • How are things going to be secured?
I have seen lots of talk about Google Gadgets, Robots, Embeds and the client. However the Google Wave Federation Protocol is over the heads of a lot of people.

This is where I really think the innovation is going to occur that will ensure business and enterprise adoption of Google Wave. I haven't seen much rubber meeting the road here as I fight to develop my own understanding of the Google Wave Federation Protocol.

I was beginning to wonder if Google was keeping this part of the architecture a little more secret, but then Friday they released some open sourced code for Google Wave Federation Protocol from last Mondays API Hackathon. They released two components:
  1. Operational Transform (OT) code and the underlying wave model
  2. Basic client/server prototype that uses the wave protocol
I am not a Java developer and will have to rely on partners to evaluate this code and its use. I am hoping other platforms follow suit and would like to see a Python and / or PHP based Google Wave Protocol server deployment.

We'll see how this plays out. Its exciting stuff.