It's rare to come across a piece of technology that is truly revolutionary, however after seeing the recent preview of Google Wave, it looks like that technology will have a significant impact on the way we collaborate in the future.

With Wave, Google are looking for an alternative to the traditional email paradigm. Email has been around since before the web, and it is not the most efficient form of communication - especially when you want to collaborate with a few people. One of the reasons I love Google Docs so much is for its collaboration capabilities - and Wave looks to extend that even further.

The other exciting aspect is that Google will make this an open system - not only via open API's (so developers can extend the functionality), but as an open protocol - so other companies can develop Wave systems, with a view to creating a federated model that could supplant email.

Google Wave is expected to be released (in beta no doubt) later in the year. Check out the video below for a sneak peak: