According to Google, this is what wave (which is OpenSource) is:
A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.
And here’s the movie version:
I hear that Wave is perceptibly faster in Chrome than any other browser. True? Time to download Chrome?
3rd party developers have been doing beta testing for months, and it doesn’t seem to be open to the public yet; what exactly changed today?
Treppenwitz: I guess I wasn’t particularly clear on that, was I. Today the newest version of the software goes out to 100,000 plus users including developers but also a lot of people I think we would normally refer to as voluntary “beta testers.”
From there, there will be “invitations” sent out to other possible users.
Ah, neat. I’ve been on the “let me know when it’s available” list since that page went up, and I’m looking forward to a chance to try it out.