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:
Operational Transform (OT) code and the underlying wave model
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.
