I want something that I can use to communicate with just the friends I usually hang out with, for project groups, for dorms and even with my own family.<p>Email is the current solution but email's really disorganized and not fun. Google Wave is too complicated although I feel that it's close to the right solution. If you could build your own solution, what would it be? Do you know any existing solutions that are great for something like this?
I started using Ventrilo while playing mmorpg's and ended up using it in my business for realtime voice collaboration among team members. More personal and more efficient than IM, it's like a group walkie talkie through your computer. Or a VOIP conference call that's always on.
[ventrilo.com]
We use email, IM, google wave and yammer for work. None of them are perfect. I probably use IM most of all, we don't have a culture of instant response so it is not as disruptive as it sounds.<p>But you are right, I don't feel any of the above is completely perfect.