I recently got a Google Wave preview invite (thanks you-know-who). I’m excited about the collaborative options but anxious to be able to actually collaborate with people other than the handful lucky enough to be testing the preview version.

I created my first semi-working wave today the initial text is as follows:

Thinking about technology, open access, and still wanting something to be generally single-authored, I’m wondering if I can use Google Wave to work through my dissertation.

Some initial questions:

Can I put a Creative Commons license on a wave?

Can I make a wave “public” so I can have anyone read it and make suggestions but still be able to moderate it? I think this could be more managable than creating a Wiki, but just as participatory.

Do I need to wait until this is out of “preview” to best connect others?

I’ve got a meager four contacts on Wave at the moment and only two are aware of the research/teaching behind the dissertation stuff I’ll get around to.

For now, I’m going to try to throw a few ideas up here, play around with this and see if anything can come of it.

I’m trying to experiment with ways to post the wave here, though with everything still a “preview,” I can’t ensure things will stay put. In the meantime, I’m curious about thoughts about proceeding with public head-scratching, drafting, defending, and writing of the dissertation. Is this kind of open approach even going to be accepted?