A New "Wave" in Collaboration

I was recently introduced to this video by way of my Twitter friends.
It is a demo of the new Google application called Google Wave. I can see this as having a lot of potential for businesses, but I would be curious as to how it could be used in the classroom.



This could potentially be a wonderful collaboration tool for students to use with students from other classrooms all over the country or farther. Hey Mr. Kimmi, how nice would this have been during our attempted classroom project?
A couple of concerns that I would have however are:
1. Students would probably need to have their own email address to access. It would be nice to create accounts for students without the use of an email address, similar to PBworks (which is my favorite by the way). I'm guessing that Google is aiming this toward more business/personal usage and aren't considering the potential with student learning.
2. I have a feeling that this is the type of application that would be blocked by our district simply because of the chat style collaboration it presents. It would surely be a shame to block from at least teacher use again because of the huge possibilities it presents for collaboration purposes. Imagine creating a lesson with a fellow 5th grade teacher whose building is two miles away from you or farther almost instantly.