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Week 13: Messaging

Week 13: Messaging. Tara Smith April 8, 2003 I385T - KMS. What is Instant Messaging (IM)?. “Instant Messaging is near-synchronous computer-based one-on-one communication.” (Nardi, Whittaker, Bradner p. 80)

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Week 13: Messaging

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  1. Week 13: Messaging Tara Smith April 8, 2003 I385T - KMS

  2. What is Instant Messaging (IM)? • “Instant Messaging is near-synchronous computer-based one-on-one communication.”(Nardi, Whittaker, Bradner p. 80) • “Instant messaging is an Internet protocol (IP)–based application that provides convenient communication between people using a variety of different device types. The most familiar today is computer-to-computer instant text messaging, but IM also can work with mobile devices, such as digital cellular phones, and can incorporate voice or video.”(International Engineering Consortium) • Instant messaging is the ability to easily see whether a chosen friend or co-worker is connected to the Internet and to exchange messages with them. IM differs from ordinary e-mail in the immediacy of the message exchange, and makes continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth. Most IMs are text-only. However, some services allow voice messaging and file sharing. Usually, IMing is truly "instant." Even during peak Internet usage periods, the delay is rarely more than a few seconds.(Searchwebservices.com)

  3. Ideas and Questions • Describe your personal IM habits. • Has anyone used IM for work? • IM as “free” communication. • Collegial, yet user-controlled interactions. • What features would you incorporate with a Corporate IM system to support KM?

  4. Quick Facts and Other Figures • In a survey of 102 companies with 1,000+ employees: • 93% say they’re either using or expect to use IM on their networks in the near future. • 33% have chosen an IM standard (one or more products) • 28% block IM traffic (Osterman Research, InternetWeek.com. April 2, 2003) • In a recent report, Instant Messaging for Business: • 200+ million people use IM, forecasted at 500 million users by 2006. • 60% of real-time communication will be driven by IM technology by 2004. (ZDNet Australia. Instant Messaging for Business. February 5, 2003)

  5. Presence • Presence is the detection of another person online, a fundamental process of IM systems. • “With presence, users indicate their status – whether they’re available or not…This feature reduces phone tag, enables ad hoc meetings to occur, and in general facilitates the sort of electronic communications that might naturally occur in person.”(Greenfield. Network Magazine. December 4, 2002) • The IETF is working on an IM standard, the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol to “define protocols and data formats necessary to build an internet-scale end-user presence awareness, notification and instant messaging system.” (IMPP Working Group)

  6. IM Platforms • Consumer Services (usually free): • AIM - ICQ - IRC - MSN & Yahoo Messenger • Trillian • Enterprise Services (more secure): • Jabber - Exchange Server - Lotus Sametime • Yahoo Messenger Enterprise • Open Systems and Others Comparison of IM Systems (Source: the Yankee Group, 2002)

  7. Consumer IM • ICQ (“I seek you”) was started in 1996 as a free utility that allowed client-to-client communication. Bought by AOL in 1998. • AIM, MSN and Yahoo Messenger are free proprietary protocol systems and are not secure. • Trillian allows cross-platform communication and logs chats. A for-purchase version has additional features.

  8. Enterprise IM • “It took more than 10 years before enterprises recognized and effectively addressed problems of (e-mail) security, reliability and business policy. Enterprises must pay proper attention to IM usage now, lest they repeat the painful lessons taught by e-mail.” (Smith. InternetMessagingPlanet.com FAQ) • “The Gartner Group predicts that 70% of all enterprises will employ IM services by 2003, and that by 2005, IM will be integrated into 50% of the applications that businesses use to directily interact with their customers.” (Greenfield. Network Magazine. December 4, 2002) • “Most of the products available now, or coming soon, provide the strong user namespace management, directory integration, end-to-end message encryption, and auditing and reporting capabilities currently lacking in most public IM systems.” (Chu. eWeek.com. December 16, 2002)

  9. Interaction and Outeraction • IM supports informal, interactive communication tasks. These tasks are essential to collaborative work since they “support joint problem solving, coordination, social bonding, and social learning.” (Nardi, Whittaker, Bradner p. 79) • IM also supports outeraction, “a set of communicative processes outside of information exchange, in which people reach out to others in patently social ways to enable information exchange.” (Nardi, Whittaker, Bradner p. 79)

  10. IM for Communication and Interaction Primary Uses: • Quick questions and clarifications • Coordination and scheduling • Arranging impromptu social meetings • Keeping in touch with friends and family IM is successful because it is: - Immediate - Flexible - Expressive

  11. Outeractive Functions of IM IM supports the non-interactive aspects of communication through: • Ease of Screening (presence), • Delayed Responding, and • Plausible Deniability. These functions give users more control over interactions than other communication mediums.

  12. Internet Relay Chat • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is “a major real-time textual group-messaging system.” (Van Dyke, Lieberman, Maes p. 39) • IRC conversations take place in channels (chat rooms) where all messages are public; users explicitly join conversations; and identification is arbitrary. • Finding an interesting conversation takes considerable manual searching.

  13. Butterfly for IRC • Butterfly is a software agent that “samples the content of all the [IRC] channels, and makes recommendations using a keyword-based model of interest.” (Van Dyke, Lieberman, Maes p. 39) • Allows users to designate interest in a topic at three levels: normal, great, and negative.

  14. Conversational Technology • Conversational functionality is now being added to a variety of web-based activities. • 3 types of instant communication: • Peer-to-Peer • Application-to-Application • Peer-to-Application (A-A and P-A support agent functions)

  15. Conversational Technology: Jabber • Jabber supports all three types of instant communication in real-time and asynchronously. Jabber is also a cross-platform application. • Jabber is XML based, allowing for a fully distributed but private namespace, and single-point conversation management. • To the traditional identification elements of user@server, Jabber adds /resource to provide access to data. • Presence is more than just on/offline. Jabber includes location, applications in use, and other contextual details.

  16. Welcome to the IM Gold Rush • “One of the key draws of secure IM for companies is that it will allow them to use the medium for more complex transactions than mere gossiping.” (Glasner. Wired News. September 11, 2002) • IM tools marketed to businesses feature: • behind-the-firewall security • encryption • greater company-level control • log archiving

  17. Security Issues “While many consumer instant messaging products promise real-time connectivity, these third-party peer-to-peer “Web Chat” applications can pose real threats to the focus, integrity, and security of your business communications.” (2Way Corporation, InstantMessagingPlanet.com)

  18. Internet Trends The trend for enterprise instant messaging is splitting in three directions: • Consumer-based “public” IM solutions: AOL (57% share) MSN (37%), Yahoo (31%), and ICQ (20%). • Closed, proprietary IM solutions: Lotus Sametime or Communicator’s Hub IM System (financial services) • Open solutions: IMlogic or IM-Age. These permit the use of public IM networks, but allow the enterprise to control the messaging software. (The Yankee Group. Instant Messaging in the Enterprise. August 12, 2002)

  19. What to look for in an IM package • Client Platform Support • Server Platform Support • Directory Support • Interoperability with Public IM systems • Server based Logging (ZDNet Australia. Instant Messaging for Business. February 5, 2003)

  20. IM News • ActiveBuddy’s HR Agent • IM-Age’s IM Policy Manager • Microsoft Sharepoint for Office 2003 and Greenwich • InstantMessagingPlanet.com

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