When Google announced a new communication and collaboration platform in May called Google Wave, people immediately signed up to be waitlisted for invitations to the beta or test version of the platform.

Google Wave is e-mail, instant messaging, wiki and collaboration platform combined. It’s been described as what e-mail would have looked like if it were invented today.

Google has since invited more than a million users to the system but the service continues to be invitation-only. If you want to be invited, be a fan of CebuRunning in Facebook and request for an account there.

ORGANIZING A RUN. Google Wave is an excellent platform to use in organizing road runs. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

Much has been said and written about Google Wave but this much is clear—it is indeed a great communication and collaboration tool. And because of that, it is an excellent tool for organizing runs.

I’m currently organizing the first group run of the recently-organized Sun.Star Cebu running club and decided to try using Google Wave for the task. Three Wave gadgets immediately come to mind: Yes/No/Maybe for confirmation, Google Maps and AccuWeather.

The Yes/No/Maybe gadget allows people to RSVP for events, in this case, the Sunday long run. The gadget then lists the people who are either attending, not attending or still unsure of joining the run.

The Google Maps gadget allows you to plot your running route and use placeholders to mark turning points, areas for water breaks, among other things. The placeholders also allow people to leave comments on the suggested route.

The only thing lacking in the maps gadget is a distance calculator. I did not have a problem without it because I had already calculated the distance of the route I had in mind using Google Maps (I wrote about how to do it in this earlier blog post).

DIFFERENT GADGETS. Three gadgets useful for organizing groups runs in Google Wave are Yes/No/Maybe for confirmation, Google Maps and AccuWeather gadgets.

The AccuWeather.com gadget, meanwhile, allows you to display the weather forecast for race day. The proposed date for the Sun.Star Cebu running club’s first group run is still weeks away so the forecast isn’t that accurate. But since the gadget is already set to display the forecast for a certain date, it should update the data as race day approaches.

Google Wave excels at collaboration work and with its gadgets, it is an excellent tool for runners to plan a road run.