Alrighty than! Thing 3! Instant Messaging!
Instant messaging is a way for people to communicate to each other in real time over a network like the internet. There are several programs that one could use to do IM-ing. AIM, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, and Google Talk are just a few.
Instant messaging is not a new concept to me. IM-ing has been around for a long time in one form or another, whether it be Google Talk or text messaging or chat rooms, I’m old hat. Now a days I occasionally chat with a friend in Gmail but I generally prefer plain 'ol e-mail. If you lump text messaging in, I, like so many others, am totally addicted.
Texting is a great way to communicate via cell phone when it’s impractical or impolite to have a real conversation (we in the library don’t know anything about improper cell phone use, do we?). Still, in the library world, texting doesn’t seem to have a lot of uses. On the other hand, there is a great way for library’s to benefit from the IM craze, chat rooms.
I find more and more businesses doing online support via a chat room. Just the other day I used Comcast's online support and it could not have been easier. I logged in, waited for their professional to log in and after a few brief questions he was able to walk me through my problem. I have seen library’s do very similar things with reference. It can really cut down on the flaws of verbal communication, namely not being able to understand what a person is saying.
I like the idea of instant messaging; I just don't get enough from it to use it with any kind of consistency (except for texting). Good concept, but bad in practice for me.
Till thing 4 comes along. Cheers!
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2 comments:
Cool Blog. I found the Im'ing fun-like you it was something I had done before but I text messsage a lot more then I IM.
i can't get into texting because i'm not very fast with my phone's keypad. i guess i'll have to get an iphone or some other smart phone! anyone have $400 they want to give me :)
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