Archive for Instant Messaging

Teamwork, But Less Technology

Teamwork, But Less Technology

Mid-tier firms don’t use collaboration tools as much as larger companies do. Is that wise?

Small and growing businesses are not technology laggards. Mid-tier companies are more likely than large companies to be early and midstream technology adopters, and they are increasing IT spending faster, according to past CIO Insight surveys.

Fascinating article which looks at the differences in IT use between large and small/medium firms. If you look at the chart there are differences across the board, but the largest differences appear to be in specific collaborative technologies. The article speculates why this might be the case, but it would be useful to dig a bit deeper into how the large companies are using these technologies. What are the demographics that are different? Are the companies more productive or less when they use these technologies. On chart is particularly interesting:

25 March, 2008 | No comments

Students use IM-lingo in essays

Students use IM-lingo in essays - CNN.com

But junior high and high school teachers nationwide say they see a troubling trend: The words have become so commonplace in children’s social lives that the techno spellings are finding their way into essays and other writing assignments.

Most of the time I am excited about how technology is impacting digital relationships. But this article has me concerned, not because students do it. They always look for the path of least resistance. But some educators have me scratching my head:

Some educators, like David Warlick, 54, of Raleigh, North Carolina, see the young burgeoning band of instant messengers as a phenomenon that should be celebrated. Teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world, said Warlick, who has authored three books on technology in the classroom.

Ok, I get his point. But the kids we have now are relatively new to IM compared with those we will see in the future. Will the entire business environment change to compensate for these students? Some seem to think so (see Got Game).

12 February, 2007 | No comments

U r sckd: worker fired by text message

U r sckd: worker fired by text message - Yahoo! News

Katy Tanner, a 21-year-old sales assistant, received the message while she was off work with a migraine, the South Wales Echo newspaper said Friday.The text message said: “We will not require your services anymore…Thank you for your time with us.”

Wow, I wish there was a button I could push which said “follow this story as it continues” but there is not. Should she have been dismissed via. SMS? Well on the surface this does seem unfair, but if you read further they tried several other ways including leaving a message with her boyfriend. So she did not give them the courtesy of returning their calls? They simply used a form of communication they knew would get through and she would be forced to check. But, could she pursue some sort of legal action for being “improperly terminated”? Sure it sounds silly, but I wouldn’t be shocked.

5 August, 2006 | No comments

Instant messaging joins police emergency arsenal

Instant messaging joins police emergency arsenal - Business - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper

Instant messaging helped police respond to recent emergencies on opposite sides of the country, and law-enforcement agencies are figuring out how to embrace the popular real-time communication tool.
Earlier this month, a couple and their teenage son were home in Bangor, Maine, when three men forced their way inside. The intruders locked the mother and son in a bedroom and assaulted the father in an attempt to steal prescription drugs, said Sgt. Paul Kenison, a 13-year veteran detective of the Bangor Police Department.
The bedroom did not have a telephone, Sgt. Kenison said, but the teenager used the computer to send a four-line instant message to his girlfriend.

And with IM being built right into cell phones I am sure we will see more stories like this in the future.

26 December, 2005 | No comments

Recruiting goes digital as college coaches use the cell to sell

ARTICLE: Recruiting goes digital as college coaches use the cell to sell (The Virginian-Pilot - HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com)

In the high-stakes world of college football, keeping in touch is critical. And with increasing restrictions on recruiting, technology provides a potential edge — or annoyance, depending on who is asked.

Another good article about where old model meets new and new digital stakeholders are established. Except this time the stakeholders are coaches and athletes.

2 November, 2005 | No comments

Techno kids hang up on the real world

Techno kids hang up on the real world - 11/02/05

Across America, a symphony of unanswered house phones reminds us that there has been a sea change within families. More than half of all teens now conduct their lives on their own cell phones, or in a zillion online “instant” conversations parents never see, according to studies by MindShare Online Research and Consumer Electronics Association.

Children today have been labeled “the connected generation,” with iPods in their ears, text messages at their fingertips and laptop screens at eye level.

But their technology-focused lifestyle can leave them disconnected from the wider world, especially from their parents.

For all the good these technolgies bring there are some serious problems when digital stakeholders replace traditional stakeholders. We have already posted a CNN article which addressed declining social skills. Can it get worse?

2 November, 2005 | No comments

The fight for web talk heightens

ICE World

You’ll also need a Gmail username and password before you can make free PC-to-PC calls. (For getting a Gmail account, you have to be invited by a current user.) After having used both Yahoo! and MSN’s messengers for the last couple of years, Google Talk was a touch disappointing. Some of the review blogs have even termed it the ‘stone age of instant messaging’.

A different view of how Google continues to evolve. It appears that the first people to view Google’s IM product have been a bit underwhelmed….perhaps I should check it out. As companies scramble to mimick each other, there will be an eventual loser.

8 September, 2005 | No comments

FOXNews.com - Business - Report: Google Planning Instant-Messaging System

FOXNews.com - Business - Report: Google Planning Instant-Messaging System

Citing unnamed sources “familiar with the service,” the Los Angeles Times said that Google’s Instant Messaging program would be called Google Talk and could be launched as early as Wednesday.

Soon we will see Google Games and everything else that Yahoo! does. Pretty uninspiring if you ask me. Do something different. Add some value. To this point all Google does in incrementally improve what others have done.

23 August, 2005 | No comments

The Seattle Times: Personal Technology - Charles Bermant

The Seattle Times: Personal Technology: Net Makes Saying “No, Thank You” Easier

By Charles Bermant
Special To The Seattle Times

20 August, 2005 | No comments

Again With The Phishing

Again With The Phishing

WashingtonPost.Com staff writer Robert MacMillan discusses the online scam known as phishing.

19 August, 2005 | No comments

Get Digital: The Secret Lives Of MP3 Players - Sunday Times - Times Online

Get Digital: The Secret Lives Of MP3 Players - Sunday Times - Times Online

Between them, the Internet and the ubiquitous MP3 player have transformed the way we listen to music any time, anywhere. Whether they favour Beethoven, the Beatles or Britney, more than one in three under-35s in the UK owns an MP3 player. What’s less well known is that these gadgets can jump through many other useful hoops. While Apple’s iPod has become shorthand for a generation of music players, it has scores of rivals, and most are multitasking marvels that can help you surf the net, keep appointments or reschedule your favourite radio shows — as the actor Martin Clunes has learnt.

25 June, 2005 | 1 comment

HoustonChronicle.com - Employers tracking e-mail, Web use

HoustonChronicle.Com - Employers Tracking E-Mail, Web Use

Surveys show more companies are monitoring their workers

By ANDREA COOMBES
Marketwatch

SAN FRANCISCO - The time you spend at work surfing online or shooting off e-mails to friends and colleagues may feel like an island of private time in the public sea of your workday, but don’t trust that feeling.

25 June, 2005 | 1 comment

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: BlackBerry Outages Largely Unexplained

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: BlackBerry Outages Largely Unexplained

By Bruce Meyerson
The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Research In Motion (RIM) is offering few details about two major outages in a week with its popular BlackBerry service, which delivers e-mail to wireless devices favored by many executives.

RIM, which makes the pioneering mobile devices and provides the e-mail service over cellular networks, attributed a June 17 outage lasting nearly four hours to a software upgrade “that did not operate consistent with prior testing.”

25 June, 2005 | No comments

Technology Builds New Community Connections - 06/23/05

Technology Builds New Community Connections - 06/23/05

Many stay involved with social groups and political causes through e-mails and Web sites.

By Haya El Nasser / USA TODAY

VIENNA, Va. — James Cudney manages three kids, frequent business trips and up to 15 homeland defense programs for a technology company. His wife, Elaine, works full time at a top accounting firm and is active in a business club. He’s a Cub Scout leader, she the Scout pack treasurer. They go to church, attend community events and rarely miss school functions.

So forgive the Cudneys if they don’t buy popular arguments that sprawl, mobility and the automobile have unraveled community bonds in American life. The Cudneys are as connected and engaged as they’ve ever been.

“But I would not be able to be involved if it wasn’t for the Internet,” says James Cudney, 41. “I wouldn’t have been able to be the Cubmaster of Pack 152 without e-mail. I don’t have time to do traditional phone trees and calendars by hand.”

23 June, 2005 | No comments

24/7, Teens Get The Message

24/7, Teens Get The Message

Digital devices keep young people connected — to each other. E-mail is too slow but 10 hours a day on a cellphone isn’t too much.

By Terril Yue Jones, Times Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — In a not-at-all unusual month, Will Wu spent more than 10,000 minutes on his mobile phone — an average of 5 1/2 hours a day.

Sometimes he talked, sometimes he listened. But most of the time, the 15-year-old just dialed up a friend and left the phone on. Connected only by wireless headsets, Will and his pal spent entire days — together, but apart — shopping, snacking, doing homework and even nodding off to sleep.

23 June, 2005 | No comments

� Next entries