Real-Time Communication

Transcription

1 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 341 Real-Time Communiation 11 hapter Chapter Objetives This hapter helps you understand what instant messaging is. what some of the key features of instant messaging are. what Voie over Internet Protool (VoIP) is. how to engage in effetive instant messaging etiquette. some of the ommon abbreviations used in instant messaging. how to hold an effetive videoonferening session over the Internet. how instant messaging is transforming the workplae. Are you ready to get real? Real time, that is. In Chapters 4 and 10, we disussed , newsgroups, and other forms of ommuniation that work in flex-time. In flex-time, or asynhronous ommuniation, you , post a message to a disussion mailing list, or add a blog entry, and then you wait for a period of time until someone responds. This ommuniation is asynhronous beause it is happening at different times. Communiation that happens at the same time is synhronous ommuniation. Asynhronous ommuniation is benefiial beause it doesn t require the reipient to be sitting at his or her omputer waiting to respond. These methods are partiularly good for ommuniation when people are in different time zones, or simply not able to respond at that moment. But, asynhronous ommuniation also has its drawbaks. For instane, what if both parties are online at the same time and want a more immediate response? What if the parties want to hear, or even see, one another? This hapter is about going live in real time. It is about using your omputer and Internet onnetion to reah out to another party and make more diret ontat. It s about synhronous ommuniation.

2 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Instant Messaging When just doesn t seem fast enough, there are a number of programs that will let you use your keyboard to hat in real time with someone who is online anywhere in the world. Instant messenger (IM) programs, also alled hat programs, allow you to insert text and send it instantly to someone else who is using the same IM program. In return, that person will be able to see your message and respond to it immediately. Many people will refer to messages as IMs in ontext, suh as Send me an IM or Someone is IMing me. They will also refer to an online onversation as a hat session. We ll fous mainly on the very popular Ameria Online Instant Messenger (AIM), and then talk about how some of the other IM lients differ. You will find that all the hat programs have the same essential features, inluding managing ontats (sometimes alled buddies or friends) on a list, bloking so others annot see your online status and send messages, and audio and video apabilities. Ameria Online Instant Messenger (AIM) Available for download at AIM is adware. Subsribers to AOL already have a version of AIM built into their user-interfae but non-subsribers an download the hat lient and begin using it right away. You ll need to reate a nikname and password for yourself in order to download the software. One you ve downloaded and installed this program on your system, it should look something like Figure There are a variety of things you an do to aquire ontats or buddies for your list of people you would like to hat with. You an ask friends and family what their AIM nikname is, and you an searh by address. If you would like to add someone who uses AOL, you an extrat his or her buddy name from his or her address, and enter it into your buddy list. If you need an AIM buddy to start you off, you an use tyroneadams@aol.om or just tyroneadams for short. Itip * Leave your instant messenger open when you want to engage in hat sessions. Your online buddies will be able to see that you are online, and may IM you. If you are busy or are going to be away from your omputer for a while, hange your status to away or busy so that others will know why you re not responding right away. Open the AIM hat lient. Clik the Setup button shown in Figure If you don t have a Setup button, you an also use the menu options, People, Find a Buddy, By address. You ll see another window open on your desktop. At the bottom of this window, you ll see three preset folders, titled Buddies, Family, and Co-workers. Doublelik the Buddies folder to open it. Clik the Add Buddy button, as shown in Figure Type tyroneadams@aol.om in the Open Buddy Name box, and press Enter on your keyboard. You have just added Tyrone L. Adams, one of the authors of this book, to your buddy list. If he is online, go ahead and send him an IM. If he is online, his name will be boldfaed and appear in the online ategory of your AIM hat lient sreen. Double-lik his buddy name, and the hat lient sreen will open. If he is not online, his nikname will appear in the offline ategory. If you leave your hat lient open, it will notify you when he omes online.

3 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 343 Instant Messaging 343 Figure 11.1 The AOL Instant Messenger Client (AIM) is an easy-to-use interfae that allows you to have ontrol over several IM options. Figure 11.2 The Setup button loated on the bottom-right orner of the AIM lient. Figure 11.3 The Add Buddy button lets you add buddyies to your wath list. Double-lik on his name, type a message and press the Enter key. Some hat programs require you to lik a Send button rather than pressing the Enter key. Send him a message. It s that easy! When he replies, you will see his reply in the upper pane after your message. The message window looks similar to Figure Itip * Some ISPs and software ompanies offer support through instant messaging! You an add the ISP aount to your buddy list, and delete it when you no longer need it.

4 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Figure 11.4 The IM window will open for you to begin onversation with a buddy who is online. All you have to do is double-lik the buddy s name. AIM Features Bloking The bloking feature allows you to blok IMs from a ontat or buddy you are bloking. It also prevents other users from seeing when you are online, and you will always appear offline in their lists. So, you ll have to wath your online etiquette a bit when engaging in hat sessions. This is how you an blok a buddy or ontat using AIM. Open your AIM hat lient. There are a variety of methods you an use to blok a ontat. If your buddy IMs you, you an lik the Blok button to blok this ontat, as shown in Figure You an also right-lik the buddy name on your list to reveal the shortut menu, and selet the Blok Buddy menu option. Similarly you an unblok a buddy by right-liking on the buddy name and seleting the menu item: Unblok Buddy. Figure 11.5 The Blok button allows you to blok inoming IMs from someone you would like to suppress.

5 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 345 Instant Messaging 345 Private Chat Rooms Another feature that AIM boasts is the ability to host private hat rooms for more than two parties. These hat rooms are plaes where small groups of people an meet and disuss issues in real time. So, if you have a need for more than two people at a time to hat, and these users share AIM in ommon, you an reate a multiple party hat room where the onversation an really unfold. Open your AIM hat lient. Selet People from the down-menu on your AIM Client. Selet Send Chat Invitation to your buddy. At this time, you will have to wait for your buddy to aept the invitation to your private hat room. Repeat as neessary on your buddy list until all your ontats are in the private hat room. One they are all in the hat room, begin ommuniating. Sending Files Another feature of IM sessions is the ability to send a file to someone on your buddy list. For example, let s say that you are working on a team projet for shool, whih requires a lot of group effort. And, let s also suppose that your team members annot meet together physially to get their work aomplished. That s when IMs ome in handy. Your group ould meet in a hat room on AIM, and distribute graphis, spreadsheets, or just about any type of doument neessary to aomplish its task. Sending files has beome a versatile means of aomplishing many small-group, team-oriented tasks lately. Here s how you do it: Open your AIM hat lient. Begin a hat session with one of your online buddies. Selet People from the drop-down menu in your IM. Selet Send File from the drop-down menu. A new window will open on your monitor, as shown in Figure Figure 11.6 Looking to transfer a file to your buddy online? The Send File feature under the people dropdown menu will allow you to, while arrying on your IM session.

6 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Selet File if you wish to send a simple file, or Selet Folder if you wish to send an entire folder. One you have the file or folder seleted, lik the Send button. It will initiate your transmission. Your buddy will have the opportunity to Aept or Deline the file or folder you are trying to send. If your buddy hooses to aept, the file will be transmitted. If your buddy hooses to deline, you will reeive a deline message. Seurity and Sending Files Be very autious about reeiving files through a hat lient. These files an ontain viruses. Use your anti-virus software to san any files you hoose to reeive, partiularly if the files are exeutable programs. Some people are unable to reeive files through a hat lient beause they are behind a firewall. Firewalls are typially onfigured to disallow attahments through hat lients. In order to transmit files, the hat lient establishes a diret omputer-toomputer onnetion between the two ontats, something like a peer-to-peer onnetion. Firewalls will blok diret omputer-to-omputer onnetions beause of the seurity risk that these onnetions pose. Itip * Be sure to san any file you reeive for viruses. Even if you know the person who sent you the file, hek it for viruses. The person sending the file may not know it ontains a virus! Itip * Make sure your mirophone is not too lose to your speakers. When the mirophone is too lose, it will pik up the voies of the other people from the speaker and the feedbak will be a terrible eho effet. Another option is to redue the sensitivity of the mirophone through the audio wizard if you annot physially move your mirophone. Audio Chat An added feature built into AIM and other hat lients is the audio hat feature. AIM uses Voie over Internet Protool (VoIP) to send and reeive audio. VoIP is a diret ompetitor of telephone ommuniation, using the Internet as a arrier. With AIM, you an use your omputer system just as you would a telephone, with bidiretional sound apabilities. In order to use audio hat, your omputer will require a mirophone, speakers, and a full-duplex sound ard. In omputing, the terms half-duplex and full-duplex desribe data transfer, and in the ase of audio hat, the data is sound. Half-duplex means that data an travel only one way at a time. A walkie-talkie is a good example of half-duplex ommuniation. One person talks, stops, and the next person talks, but both people annot be talking and listening at the same time. In full-duplex ommuniation, data is transferred in both diretions simultaneously. The telephone is a good example of full duplex ommuniation. In the ase of the telephone, both parties an talk and listen at the same time. In the early stages of audio ommuniation over the Internet, ommuniation was half-duplex only. In order to reeive full audio ommuniation, your omputer s sound ard must support fullduplex sound. Reent omputers have this tehnology, but you should be aware that if you are ommuniating with someone who has older tehnology, they might not be able to use audio hat beause of this. To initiate an audio hat, all you need to do is: Open your AIM hat lient. Right-lik a buddy name to reveal the shortut menu, and lik the Send an Instant Message menu item. This will open an IM window. Clik the Talk button in your IM window, as shown in Figure You may also have to lik the OK button to initiate the audio hat.

7 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 347 Instant Messaging 347 Mirophones, Speakers, Headsets, and Web Cams Mirophones: In order to be able to use audio or teleonferening hat, you will need a mirophone. You do not need an expensive mirophone for audio hat, so if you are purhasing a mirophone for this purpose only, the least expensive one will do. Some omputers ome equipped with a built-in mirophone. Plae your mirophone away from your speakers. If the mirophone is lose enough to the speakers, it piks up the speaker output, reating a feedbak loop, whih results in an eho effet. One effetive way to redue this is to use a headset with a mirophone. Speakers: Most omputers also ome with speakers, but again, for audio onferening, the least expensive speakers will do. The speakers should plug into your sound ard. Some speakers require an AC outlet or batteries to power the amplifier, but speakers without an amplifier do not require power at all. You an also use headphones instead of speakers if you wish. If you are going to be using the speakers for musi or other sound that requires high quality output, then it s worth investing in better speakers. Headsets: A headset is a ombination of headphones and mirophone. It may have a speaker for only one ear, or both, and an adjustable mirophone you an position near your mouth. This may be an eonomial alternative to purhasing a mirophone and speakers separately. Web Cams: If you plan to do audio and video onferening on the Internet, you ll likely want to buy a Web am (also known as a am). Some Web ams have a mirophone built in. These typially plug into a USB port. Videoonferening really requires a broadband onnetion, as the ombination of audio and video data requires signifiant bandwidth to transfer. The Web am will ome with installation software that must be run before you will be able to use your am online. Individual hat programs may also require you to use the audio/video setup wizard in order to install the mirophone and am for online videoonferening. Figure 11.7 The Talk button allows you to use your mirophone on your omputer to engage in real-time voie onversations with your online ontats.

8 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Wait for the onnetion to be Aepted by the other party, and for the server to onnet you. This may take some time, so be patient. One a onnetion has been established, begin talking into your mirophone. You should be onneted and able to send and reeive audio signals. Videoonferening Many hat programs also have a videoonferening feature. A videoonferene is ommuniation with audio and video. If you have never before held a videoonferene, you are in for a treat. Many businesses, organizations, and individuals have Web ams installed on their systems so that people an ommuniate through videoonferening. You an initiate a videoonferene by following these steps: Open your AIM hat lient. Right-lik a buddy name to reveal the shortut menu and lik the Send an Instant Message menu item. This will open an IM window. Clik the Video button on the IM window, as shown in Figure If this button does not appear ative, it is beause your buddy does not have a video onnetion available. This ould be beause your ontat does not have a Web am or is using an older version of AIM, whih does not support videoonferening. Figure 11.8 The Video button will start a videoonferene between you and your buddy, provided he or she has a Web am, too. Itip * Be patient when partiipating in videoonferene sessions. Depending upon the speed of your onnetivity, the program you are using, and the other videoonferene partiipant s equipment, your suess may vary. Try many different videoonferene programs to make sure that you are using the right one for you. A video display sreen will open in a new window. It should look something like Figure It an take a few minutes to establish a onnetion. One the onnetion is established, you should be able to hear your ontat, and see his or her piture in the IM window. The sreen refresh rate varies from one hat program to another and from one onnetion to another. With some programs and fast onnetions, the video should look fluid, almost as fast as a movie. Others are slower, and refresh the sreen one every few seonds, more like stop motion. Chat programs often inlude features suh as sending a buddy list to another buddy, saving onversations, and leaving away from omputer messages. You an also hange your IM message window s font and bakground olor. Clik the My AIM menu option. You should see menu options inluding Away Message, Load Buddy List, and Edit Options. The Away Message option will allow you to reate an away message. When your online status is Away, the away message will be displayed on your ontats buddy

9 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 349 Instant Messaging 349 Figure 11.9 A Web am videoonferene between two buddies using AIM. lists as your ontats hover the ursor over your ontat name. The Save Buddy List and Load Buddy List options will allow you to save your ontat list as a file, and load it again later. You an also send someone your buddy list if you wish. Let s have a look at some of the other options available. Clik the menu items My AIM, Edit Options, Edit Preferenes. Explore the options available by liking on an option in the list on the left, and experimenting with the options that are displayed. You should see options for setting sounds as someone omes online or logs out, options for hanging the bakground olor and font in the IM window, file sharing, privay, and so forth. AIM will allow you to send a text message to a user who is offline, and will deliver the message the next time the user is online. It also inludes features suh as a stok tiker (15 minute delay), news from around the world, weather updates, and diret news alerts. There are many other popular hat lients available, and you may find that you have some friends who use one program and other friends who use another. It s worth exploring some of the other hat programs to see the differenes in features.

10 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Figure The MSN Messenger. More like a Web portal than just an IM lient. MSN Messenger MSN Messenger ( like AIM, is adware, so you will see advertisements on the bottom of the window while using it. An example of the MSN window is shown in Figure MSN Messenger s features inlude: sending messages to a mobile devie suh as ell phone or pager, appliation sharing, and a whiteboard feature. Appliation sharing allows you and another online user to share an appliation suh as a spreadsheet program. Only one of you an ontrol the appliation at a time, and you must pass ontrol to the online ontat in order for him or her to ontrol your appliation. This feature is useful for online ollaboration. The whiteboarding feature allows you to post text to, or draw items on, a whiteboard shared by multiple users, also useful for ollaboration. You will find an Add Contat button in the main window, whih allows you to add a ontat to your list, and you an searh for ontats by address. You an use the advaned searh feature to searh by geographi region or interest. You an rightlik on a ontat name to find options in the shortut menu for ontats, inluding Send an Instant Message, whih opens an IM window, or blok to blok the user from seeing your online status or sending you messages. You will find onfiguration options inluding privay options and sound options in the Tools, Options menu options. MSN Instant Messenger will not allow you to send a message to ontats who are offline.

11 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 351 Instant Messaging 351 Yahoo! Messenger AIM alls them buddies, MSN Instant Messenger alls them ontats, and Messenger alls them friends. Yahoo! Messenger ( shown in Figure 11.11, has the same basi funtionality as the other hat programs inluding IM text hat, Web am, and privay settings. You will find some of the advaned features, inluding stok quotes, news from around the world, weather updates, and diret news alerts. One of the interesting features that Yahoo! Messenger has that the other hat lients lak is a built-in Web alendar with programmable reminders. You an set your omputer to be your own digital seretary, and remind you of important appointments or meetings you have sheduled. You an also send a message to an offline friend. Yahoo! Messenger also has easy aess to a large number of hat rooms in the hat feature. You will find a large assortment of Yahoo! rooms and the ability to reate user rooms as you wish. When you join a hat room, you will find that the onversation an fly by if there are many people hatting in the room. There are hat rooms for subjets inluding hobbies, tehnial, professional, and soial subjets. If a hat room doesn t exist for a topi you d like to hat about, you an reate your own user room. Your room will be displayed in the list of user rooms. Figure Yahoo! Messenger also shares the attempt to be a Web portal. ICQ ICQ (I seek you), shown in Figure 11.12, is available at and also has the basi features of text hat, ontat list management, and video onferening, using a plug-in for Mirosoft s NetMeeting. The interfae is a bit different from the other hat lients and the menu is aessed by liking the Main button at the bottom of the

12 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation Figure The ICQ Network is another popular hat lient. It offers many features that the other hat lients do not. window. The menu items Main, Preferenes will open a window ontaining preferenes for sounds, olors, hat history, and other onfiguration options. You will have to enable hat history in order to save past hats. ICQ also allows you to float an individual ontat name to your desktop, and rename ontats. You an hange your online status to invisible so that your ontats see your status as offline, but you an still hat while your status is set to invisible. You an also send a message to a user who is offline. ICQ offers some interesting features that other hat programs do not, inluding ICQ hat. The hat feature allows the reipient to see eah harater typed as the sender types it, and requires a plug-in. ICQ also attempts to make a ommunity around its hat lient, by offering servies that the other hat lients do not. For instane, if you are just looking to find a random person who is also online, you an use the Chat with a Friend feature to loate someone. You will find that liking the Online Status button reveals a menu that inludes Chat with a Friend, and you an selet Find a Chat Partner or Available to Chat with a Friend, to make yourself available for random hat. You an also searh by geographi area or interests. So, if you are bored, or simply want to learn more about people who are available to hat, this is an intriguing way to meet new and, perhaps, interesting people. Trillian Eah hat lient (AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ) aesses a different network. Thus, if your friend is online using AIM and you are using MSN, you won t see eah other. There are several unified messengers that aess your aounts on the main hat networks and onsolidate your ontat lists. The advantage is that you would only have to open one

13 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 353 Effetive Chatting 353 messenger program in order to use text hat with all the ontats on eah of your hat lients. Trillian ( is a popular unified messenger, shown in Figure You will need your userids and passwords from eah of the hat lients you use, and Trillian will onnet to eah of these networks and download your ontat lists. Trillian supports AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ. Trillian will also allow you to use the news and stok quote features of the other hat lients. Figure Trillian basi is a free unified messenger lient that helps you manage all of your hat lients in one simple interfae. The hat lients make use of Voie over IP (VoIP) in their audio streaming, but VoIP is a standalone tehnology that is beoming inreasingly popular as an alternative to traditional ground line telephone onnetions. It requires a broadband Internet onnetion. Effetive Chatting A Brief History of Text Chat No one is ertain who invented Talk, but it was heavily used between the lines onneting MIT, BBN Consulting in Massahusetts, RAND in Santa Monia, and UCLA in the late 1960s. Talk was a simple program that allowed users on networked omputers to type messages to one another in real time. As more omputers were onneted to ARPANET during the 1970s, Talk beame a means of ommuniating with anyone linked to ARPANET. This valuable tool, however, began to affet the produtivity of government and orporate employees. Mandates were issued not to use Talk unless it was truly important. But throughout the 1970s and 1980s, users ontinued to hold hat sessions. Not only was the exhange of information useful, but also ommuniating with others in this fashion was enjoyable and personable. Itip * Unified messengers suh as Trillian may not offer all the features of every IM program, but it s great if you primarily use basi IM features!

14 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation In 1988, a Finnish programmer named Jarkko Oikarinen wrote a program alled Internet Relay Chat daemon (IRC-d) to allow for multi-user real-time ommuniation. Oikarinen and his friends were bulletin board servie (BBS) partiipants. BBSs allowed partiipants to post text messages to a virtual bulletin board for publi reading. After his BBS beame uselessly luttered with brief personal messages, Oikarinen announed on the BBS that everyone should download his new software appliation, IRC, and onnet to his server for real-time hat. From that moment on, his server was flooded with a flow of partiipants. IRC was truly revolutionary beause it allowed up to 100 partiipants to engage in synhronous hat sessions, and shifted dialogues aross the world into real time. Hundreds of variations upon the original IRC model are still being used today, but the basi model remains the same. Chat Etiquette and Culture Whether you re using a hat room or one-on-one hat window, there are a few trends related to etiquette and hat ulture that have emerged. For the most part, you will find that there really doesn t seem to be any etiquette, in terms of soial rules of politeness, as people feel free to say whatever they want, in whatever manner they feel is appropriate. And you may not feel that their approah is appropriate for you, in whih ase you an put the user on your blok or ignore list. Do not use all aps. This is onsidered to be yelling, whether the ommuniation is text hat or . Use emotions and abbreviations to express emotions when ommuniating to friends. But when using these interfaes for business ommuniation, it is best to avoid the use of emotions. People an and do adopt any persona they wish when hatting. Be streetwise. Although a great many people are exatly who they say they are, a great many more are not. Chat rooms are fraught with adult hat. If you are a parent, or supervising a hild online, be very aware of the hild s online ativity. People ome and go quikly. A hat an end abruptly beause the user deided to lose the window and finish the hat, or beause there was an Internet onnetion disruption and tehnology prevented the user from ontinuing the hat. You have no way of knowing whih situation ourred. Effetive Videoonferening A Brief History of Videoonferening Even though videoonferening seems relatively new, it has atually been around sine the 1960s. AT&T introdued its Piturephone at the 1964 World s Fair. For a number of reasons, inluding a lak of bandwidth, a lak of desire by exeutives to use the tehnology, and high ost the produt did not ath on. For this reason, most of the effort during the 1970s and 1980s went into developing high-end, expensive onferening systems that were sold to orporations for use in exeutive board rooms. It wasn t until the 1990s that personal videoonferening beame possible for the average user. In the early 1990s, AT&T introdued five produt lines, inluding the

15 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 355 Effetive Videoonferening 355 Voie over Internet Protool (VoIP) Voie over Internet Protool (VoIP) Defined VoIP turns the analog signals of voie and sound into a digital signal that an be transmitted over a network, suh as the Internet. This tehnology has allowed many people to ommuniate using voie through their hat lients, and also make phone alls using servies like Dialpad.om ( and Net2- Phone ( to ordinary telephones throughout the world. VoIP providers offer a viable alternative to the traditional telephone servie. You will find a list of VoIP providers at What Equipment Is Required? You will need a mirophone, a broadband onnetion, and a VoIP servie provider. VoIP servie providers provide a wide-range of inexpensive domesti and international alling plans, so you should definitely shop around before hoosing a servie. Outside the U.S. and Canada, there has been a rise in the number of telephony afés where people an go in and pay a redued rate to plae their all over the Internet using VoIP enhaned omputers. If you have a broadband onnetion already installed in your home, but do not have a omputer, another way that you an use VoIP is to purhase a VoIP telephone adapter. The VoIP telephone adapter will onnet to your broadband onnetion, and allow you to plug any ordinary telephone into the adapter. Advantages versus Disadvantages of VoIP Advantages of VoIP: VoIP is digital data and in some ases it will be learer than a traditional phone line. VoIP typially offers servies that aren t available on a traditional phone, suh as voi and multiparty alling, and a permanent phone number regardless of where you move. It is an eonomial alternative to traditional telephone servie, as long distane is not an issue over the Internet. And in the ase of VoIP through a hat lient, there is no ost at all. Disadvantages of VoIP: While the disadvantages are few, two main issues arise in using VoIP. First, determining the loation of a 911 all over VoIP is diffiult beause the all is oming from the Internet. Seondly, if the power goes out, so too does your omputer and your VoIP telephony adapter. Traditional phone lines are exlusively powered, so you don t have to worry about power supply issues unless something happens to the lines.

16 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation VideoPhone 2500 for home use. But, aording to most experts, it was Intel s involvement that aused Internet onferening to ome to life. Intel s CEO Andy Grove, in late 1990, pushed the ompany to add riher multimedia apabilities to PCs, whih required greater proessing power. By 1993, Intel had reated a onferening program alled ProShare to take advantage of (and help sell) its more powerful hips. In the next few years, several ompanies jumped into this breakthrough market. PitureTel worked with Mirosoft, eventually reating a onferening program alled NetMeeting in Apple released QuikTime Conferening in 1995, and Intel introdued their Video Phone in These programs ould all run on a home omputer over plain old telephone servie (POTS). CU-SeeMe, another ompany that sprang to life in the 1990s, introdued the first Internet onferening system that let multiple people partiipate simultaneously in a onferene over POTS. The other desktop programs were limited to the use of two people at a time. In order for net onferening to be pratial and affordable, many tehnologial developments had to our, in addition to the inreased proessing power of PCs: Compression standards: In order for various Internet-onneted omputers to exhange video signals, they have to use the same ompression standards. Compression ondenses the video signal without losing quality. The development and widespread use of the H.32* ompression standard has made this possible. Even though many onferening software manufaturers have their own ompression standards, nearly all also inlude H.32*. Inexpensive video ameras: Obviously, to get a video signal you need a video amera. The development of heaper CCD (harged oupled devie) hips, whih are used to apture images, brought the ost of a PC video amera to an affordable level. Digital signal proessors (DSPs): To onvert the video and audio signals into digital information for transmission over the Internet, and onvert the reeived signals to sound and pitures, you need a digital signal proessor. This tehnology is inluded in your omputer hardware. Videoonferening Etiquette Videoonferening requires a little extra onsideration in order to be able to send lear video. There are also a few things to keep in mind if you are using videoonferening for business. Optimizing the Setting Appearane: Remember, people an see you in a videoonferene. Sine videoonferening is typially used for peer ollaboration, asual attire is usually appropriate. However, if you re using Internet onferening to ondut an important meeting, you ll probably need to dress more formally. Regardless, avoid white or light olored shirts; they are so bright they will wash out the piture. You also want to avoid shirts with narrow stripes, sine the stripes often appear to wiggle on video. Red outfits tend to bleed, busy prints are distrating, and shiny jewelry reflets a lot of light. Your best bet is to wear a solid blue shirt, or a dark shirt with a subtle pattern. Lighting: Lighting an make or break a video image. Don t rely on just the overhead fluoresent light that you find in most offies: the top of your head will be bright, while the lower half will be in shadow. Don t shine a light diretly on your fae either, sine this will wash out your fae. Too muh light behind you will ause your fae to

17 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 357 Effetive Videoonferening 357 Common Abbreviations AFAIK as far as I know IOW in other words AFK away from keyboard IRL in real life ASAP as soon as possible JAM just a minute A/S/L age/sex/loation JK just kidding B4N bye for now K ok BAK bak at keyboard LOL laughing out loud BBL be bak later LTNS long time no see BBS be bak soon L8R later BF boyfriend MOTD message of the day BFN bye for now MYOB mind your own business BRB be right bak NP no problem BTW by the way OIC oh, I see CYA see ya OOTB out of the box FAAK F2F FAQ FWIW FWD FYI falling asleep at the keyboard fae to fae frequently asked question for what it s worth forward for your information OTOH PDA POTS PPL ROTF ROTFL on the other hand publi display of affetion plain old telephone servie people rolling on the floor rolling on the floor laughing G2G got to go RSN real soon now GF girlfriend TTFN tah-tah for now GL good luk TTYL talk to you later GR8 great WB welome bak IE Internet Explorer by Mirosoft YAOTM yet another off-topi message IMHO in my humble opinion IMO in my opinion

18 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation be very dark. Your best bet is to use a variety of indiret light soures. To make sure that you are looking your best, lik the Play button of your net onferening program to preview your image. This will give you a good idea of what you look like on sreen to the other person. Bakground: You need to pay attention to what is behind the subjet of the piture, otherwise, it an appear as if trees are growing out of people s heads. A neutralto-dark, plain bakground is best. Movement in the bakground will detrat from the overall video quality, and should definitely be avoided. Itip * Try to set up your amera so that your head and shoulders are in view, so that others an read your faial expressions. People need to see how you reat to information, as well as how you present it. Optimizing the Conversation The lights are on and you re looking good so, now what? For most people, talking into a amera is not a natural skill. Here are a few tips that may make the onversation look at bit more natural to the person reeiving it. Eye ontat: We all know how important eye ontat is in fae-to-fae onversations. The same is true with videoonferening: good eye ontat ommuniates interest in the other person and that you are paying attention. With videoonferening, unfortunately, when you look at the other person s image on your sreen you are not making eye ontat. To make good eye ontat, you have to look diretly at the amera. Of ourse, then you an t see the other person. The best ompromise is to mount your amera to your omputer monitor, and then move the videoonferening window so that it is as lose as possible to the amera. So, for example, if you have your amera mounted to the top of your monitor, move the program window to the top of the sreen diretly below the amera. Distane: The distane that you stand from another person ommuniates a great deal as well. The loser you stand, the more intimate the onversation is; the further away that you stand, the more formal. While you an t move loser to the other person in a videoonferene, you an simulate soial distane by how lose you get to the amera. Adjust your position so that your head and shoulders fill most of the video frame. You should have no more than three people rammed into the video window at one loation. Audio over video: Most of the researh that has been done on videoonferening suggests that even though video is pretty ool, audio is more important for effetive ommuniation. If you have to hoose between a videoonferene with delayed and broken audio, or an audio-only onferene, hoose the audio. By shutting off the video, you an redue or even eliminate the delay between when you speak and the other person hears you. This an make the onversation flow muh more smoothly. In fat, in some instanes you might deide to use the telephone for the audio side of the onferene and use your omputers for just the video signal. However, you need to be aware if you do this that the video signal on your omputer will be slightly delayed and out of syn with the audio signal from the telephone. Audio quality: You will end up with the best audio quality, and the least frustrating experiene, if both people use headsets, or if you plae the speakers far enough away from the mirophone to avoid the eho sound feedbak. Video over audio: Even though responsive audio is more important than video, there are some times when video is extremely valuable. We know from interpersonal and nonverbal researh that most of the emotional and relational dimensions of messages are ommuniated nonverbally. Use the video signal to determine the other person s attitudes and feelings when you an t infer them from the sound of their voie.

19 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 359 IM in the Workplae 359 Obviously, the video signal is also ruial when you need to demonstrate ations show them, don t tell them. Etiquette: When you meet fae-to-fae, you typially shake hands. The equivalent greeting in a videoonferene is to smile and wave. We are still working out many of the etiquette issues for videoonferening. For example, if the phone rings while you are in a videoonferene, do you answer the phone? When you are on the telephone, you an work on other tasks at the same time; an you write a memo while the other person is wathing you? The best answer we an give you at this time is that it depends on your relationship to the other person. If it is someone you know fairly well, you an get away with not devoting your full attention to the videoonferene. However, if it is a superior, or someone you need to impress, you ought to devote your full attention to the onferene. It is probably best if your first ontat with a person whom you never met is over the telephone instead of a videoonferene, sine the addition of the video signal makes it far more intrusive. Finally, if there are people in the room outside the amera s eye, you ought to introdue them to the other person. IM in the Workplae It may seem as if online hat is a purely soial appliation, but it is a ommuniation tool used widely at the workplae for business ommuniation. In 2004, there were 65 million people worldwide using IM at work for business, and it is estimated that by 2005 there will be 330 million people worldwide using IM at work. Employees are using IM to ommuniate with oworkers, but also to ommuniate with lients, and offer more immediate support. Major IM lients have an enterprise or business version, or have developed their primary version to meet business needs. Use of IM at the workplae has been shown to improve produtivity as employees multi-task and hold several onversations simultaneously, but the biggest benefit is presene awareness. Employees an see who else is online, thus saving them the time wasted by telephone tag with someone who is unavailable. IM lients an pose huge seurity risks in the workplae, whih must be addressed. The IM equivalent of spam is alled spim. These unwanted IMs ould also ontain viruses that an infet the network. A muh larger seurity risk, however, is in the onversations themselves. Chat is transmitted in lear text, unenrypted, in most hat lients. So an employee an be having a legitimate, onfidential hat onversation with someone outside the workplae, but if the onversation is not enrypted, it ould be sniffed during transmission. Furthermore, employees ould be using hat programs to divulge orporate onfidential information inappropriately. With IM inreasing in popularity as a form of business ommuniation, IT departments are also implementing solutions to address these seurity onerns. Some orporations install an enterprise version of IM software that is used stritly internally. In addition, they may also install IM management software, whih searhes for keywords in hats and prevents inappropriate hat transmissions. In addition to orporate onfidential information, inappropriate hat ould also inlude harassment, inappropriate humor, or illegal material. IM management software an also arhive IM hats. This may seem like surveillane, however, in many plaes around the world all business orrespondene inluding , handwritten notes, and voie mail must be arhived for some period of time, and is legally ationable. The Amerian Management Soiety s Itip * Don t say anything in an IM at work that you wouldn t say fae to fae. IMs an be logged, and it s too easy to type in the wrong window!

20 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation 2004 study shows that only 11% of businesses were using IM management software, and yet, the same survey showed that 60% of businesses were using monitoring software. Businesses are slowly oming to grips with IM as a business tool and starting to put poliies and seurity measures in plae to handle it as suh. Just as you should be autioned not to use your work for personal use, you should also be autioned not to use your work IM for personal ommuniation. As you should know, any sent or reeived from your work address is the property of the ompany, and as more and more businesses implement an IM management strategy, inluding arhiving of IMs, these too, are the property of the ompany.

21 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 361 Review Questions and Hands-on Exerises 361 SUMMARY Now that you ve read through the hapter, you are prepared to: Blok buddies, move to private hat rooms, transfer files using a hat lient, and engage in hat lient videoonferening. Understand the revolutionary impliation of Voie over Internet Protool (VoIP). Employ effetive instant messaging etiquette by understanding the history and ulture that has evolved around the hat lient. Hold suessful videoonferening sessions by adhering to videoonferening etiquette, optimizing your environment, and optimizing the onversation. Appreiate how instant messaging is transforming the workplae, and use the hat lient to suit your professional needs. Review Questions and Hands-on Exerises Review Questions 1. What is the differene between synhronous ommuniation and asynhronous ommuniation? 2. What is an IM? 3. You were online hatting last night and heard that one of your friends was also online hatting at the same time, but your friend did not appear online in your ontat list. How ould this be explained? 4. You try to send a file to a friend you are hatting with, but the onnetion does not seem to be working. What might be ausing this? 5. What is VoIP? 6. You find yourself using three different hat lients beause your friends use different hat lients. What an you do to hat with your friends, without having to install all three lients? 7. What is POTS? 8. Give an example of appropriate lothing, bakground, and lighting that ould be used for someone who is going to be using videoonferening. 9. You are using audio onferening and you hear an eho of the person s voie as he or she is speaking. What is the likely ause and possible solution? 10. The orporate lawyer asks you for opies of your ommuniation with a fellow employee. What type of ommuniation should you provide? 11. Desribe two seurity risks that IM poses in the workplae.

22 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page Chapter 11 Real-Time Communiation 12. You are in the middle of a text hat with someone, when suddenly the onversation stops. Is this person being rude, or is there some other ause? Hands-on Exerises 1. Open the AIM hat lient and explore the options available in the menu My Aim, Edit Options, Edit Preferenes. Perform the following tasks: a. Change the font for the buddy list Entering Buddy, Online Buddy and Departing Buddy. b. In the Away Message feature reate a new away message labeled gone to lunh and write some suitable text in the text window for this new message. Clik the I m Away button to set your status to away.. In the IM/Buddy Chat option, set the olor and font for the hat window. d. In the IM/Buddy Chat option, lik the Sounds button to set sounds for eah of the message events. Clik the OK button when you are finished setting sounds. 2. Download and install MSN Instant Messenger ( a. If you have a Web am and mirophone, selet the ommands Tools, Audio/Video Tuning Wizard to onfigure your mirophone and am. b. Use the ommands Tools, Options and selet the Personal tab. Clik the Share my webam apabilities with others hekbox and type a nikname in the Type your name as you want others to see it box. Clik the OK button to set these options.. If you know someone else who uses MSN Instant Messenger, add that person to your ontat list. 3. Download and install Yahoo! Messenger ( You may have to get a Yahoo! aount if you do not already have one. a. Use the ommands Login, Preferenes and selet the General ategory. Make sure the hekbox Automatially start Yahoo! Messenger is unheked. That will ensure that Yahoo! Messenger does not start eah time you turn on your omputer. b. In the Preferenes window, selet the Appearane ategory. Change the text olor and font for the main messenger window.. In the Preferenes window, selet the Alerts and Sounds ategory. Selet eah of the alerts, suh as A friend omes online, one at a time and feel free to hoose appropriate alert methods at the bottom of the window. d. Clik the OK button when you have finished setting preferenes. e. Use the ommands Tools, Chat, Join Room to display the listing of available hat rooms. Feel free to lik the assorted ategory folders and on

23 Adams11 1/6/05 10:24 AM Page 363 Review Questions and Hands-on Exerises 363 the Yahoo! Rooms tab and User Rooms tab. Many of the hat rooms are adult rooms, and you may find some of the names of the rooms offensive. You may join a room by seleting the room, and liking the Go to Room button. If you are not interested in any of the hat rooms, lik the Canel button to lose the hat room window. f. If you know someone who has a Yahoo! aount, add that person as a ontat to your ontat list. 4. Download and install ICQ ( You will have to go through the steps to reate an ICQ aount. a. Clik the Online button and selet the options Chat with a Friend, and Find a Chat Partner. Clik the Find an Online Chat Friend button in the Chat with a Friend window. Do this repeatedly until you ome aross someone you think you might like to hat with. When you find someone, lik the Send Message button and send a friendly hello message to this person. b. Clik the Main button and selet the menu option Preferenes. Clik the Status Mode option and hange the Away status to 15 minutes.. In the Preferenes window, selet the History, Alerts and Sounds option. Clik the Sounds tab. Feel free to selet eah event and hoose a new sound for eah. d. Clik the OK button when you have finished editing preferenes. e. If you know someone who uses ICQ, add him or her as a ontat to your list. You an use the menu options Main, Add/Invite users, Find User -> Add to list, in order to find your friend. 5. Download and install Trillian basi ( You will need your userids and passwords for AIM, ICQ, and MSN. Configure Trillian to use eah of these hat aounts. 6. Whih hat pakage do you prefer, and why? 7. Find a VoIP provider in your area using the list of VoIP providers at What does the VoIP provider harge for servies? 8. If you have a Web am and mirophone and know someone else who does, try to arrange a videoonferene using any of the hat tools disussed in this hapter. If you have time, try eah one. You will notie big differenes between the quality of video and audio for eah of the hat pakages. Whih one do you prefer? 9. If you use IM at your workplae, find out if your workplae has a poliy on monitoring or arhiving IM messages, and what your responsibility as an employee is toward saving IM hat sessions.

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