Transcript Messaging - School of Information

Week 13: Messaging
Tara Smith
April 8, 2003
I385T - KMS
What is Instant Messaging (IM)?
 “Instant Messaging is near-synchronous computer-based one-onone 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)
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?
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)
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)
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)
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 forpurchase version has additional features.
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-toend message encryption, and auditing and reporting capabilities
currently lacking in most public IM systems.”
(Chu. eWeek.com. December 16, 2002)
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)
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
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.
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is “a major realtime 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.
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.
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)
Conversational Technology: Jabber
 Jabber supports all three types of instant communication
in real-time and asynchronously. Jabber is also a crossplatform 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.
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
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)
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)
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)
IM News
ActiveBuddy’s HR Agent
IM-Age’s IM Policy Manager
Microsoft Sharepoint for Office 2003
and Greenwich
InstantMessagingPlanet.com