Comments on: Why Instant Messaging is Better for Collaboration than Email

By: IM or E-mail? How to get your point across? | WOWNDADI business:productivity:technology

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:23:49 +0000

[...] was all sparked by an interesting post over on Web Worker Daily on the merits of instant messaging versus email, which lead to quite a few comments. It reminded me [...]

By: Web Worker Daily » Archive 17 Ways to Get the Most Out of Google Talk «

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:46:11 +0000

[...] Why Instant Messaging is Better than Email for Collaboration [...]

By: WOWNDADI » Blog Archive » IM or Email? How to get your point across?

WOWNDADI » Blog Archive » IM or Email? How to get your point across? — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:42:41 +0000

[...] was all sparked by an interesting post over on Web Worker Daily on the merits of instant messaging versus email, which lead to quite a few comments. It reminded me [...]

By: Om Malik’s WWD suggests that enterprise 2.0 doesn’t work? : Green & White

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:09:29 +0000

[...] just wrote a piece comparing IM VS Email as a collaboration [...]

By: jaminellis

jaminellis — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:12:51 +0000

Some great points here, that got me thinking. But a team that can gather around a single board, face to face, are always going to be at an advantage (for reasons you just inspired me to blog about :) ), but im should always beat email, because of the lower latency (time from sending to receiving). IM with shared workspace and webcams would be great!

By: paul l mccord jr | photo//tech » How to Annoy People Using Instant Messaging

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:24:08 +0000

[...] messaging can be great as a tool for collaboration, but it can also be disruptive and annoying. We wrote before about how to screw up an email [...]

By: Spam, Personally « Dress To Survive

Spam, Personally « Dress To Survive — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:55:52 +0000

[...] you need to work, shut it off. It’s a time sink, nothing more. You say collaboration? Please. You only use it to check what Sara Sextastic did in the last 34.6 [...]

By: Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive How To Annoy People Using Instant Messaging «

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:56:15 +0000

[...] To Annoy People Using Instant Messaging Instant messaging can be great as a tool for collaboration, but it can also be disruptive and annoying. We wrote before about how to screw up an email [...]

By: Jeff Hester

Jeff Hester — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:31:19 +0000

Of course IM is better — it’s (primarily) synchronous, real-time communcation. You can bounce ideas off each other without overanalyzing (the paralysis of analysis).

As for keeping a record, as pointed out by others, most IM programs allow you to save a log of all chats. Of them all, I like Google Talk best, as it saves them in my Gmail inbox (searchable right along with my email). Also, Google Desktop search has optional extensions that allow it to index chat logs, so you can search right from there.

By: Martin Wells

Martin Wells — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:43:11 +0000

With Tangler we’ve found the addition of topics and groups in a real-time messaging system generates very high levels of interaction. People want real-time notification, but doing that on a scale of hundreds or thousands is a difficult problem to solve – something we’re still working on.

There’s also a big difference between chat and discussion. Chat is time-dependent — the timing of the interaction changes the nature of what’s said. That gives you more of a “hi, are you there?” style. Since we introduced persistence and topics we’ve noticed a decline in this to be more like discussion. So, I think the lines between IM and email is getting blurry, and that’ll only accelerate.

By: Mick Liubinskas

Mick Liubinskas — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:16:04 +0000

Mick from Tangler here. This is right on topic for us. We’re trying to create a tool that will make some of you happy. Not a collaboration killer, but perfect for some uses.

And this is the challenge, or maybe the opportunity. Even for a an individual there is many ways that they should be collaborating to get the right outcome. Sometimes it’s email, when you want to collect your thoughts and think it through. Sometimes it’s IM when you are ‘whiteboarding’ and just throwing things around. Sometimes it’s one on one and sometimes it’s a room of 20. I wouldn’t go a day without collaborating in more then 5 ways, and that’s how it should be.

The other challenge is that each person has preferences. Maybe I’m an email guy and IM freaks me out. Maybe email is boring and slow. How do these two collaborate? You’ve got to be considerate of that especially in teams that bleed outside the techniclined crowd.

Tangler would best be described as (becoming) a combination of forums and IM. It’s in beta right now and if anyone is open to giving us feedback I’d be happy to give you an invite. gotgroup a t tangler .do.t. com If you feel this is off topic or spam, just del.

Cheers

P.S. (It would also appear that blog comments are sometimes good for collaboration )

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:42:17 +0000

My wife works for an investment bank who uses IM all the time to communicate locally and globally; it works definately for them, better than email which as become more the ‘official’ transport for message.

By: Stephan Voigt, Mindquarry Blog

Stephan Voigt, Mindquarry Blog — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:51:17 +0000

I think IM just happens. But as mentioned in the article and the comments, it's sometimes a very inordinate communication. You need much discipline to communicate clearly and you need to keep the communication minutes in most cases. (like I said in our Mindquarry blog article) At least you still need it all: IM & mail & wiki & Fileserver to have a powerful collaboration environment.

By: Mindquarry Blog

Mindquarry Blog — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:33:07 +0000

Better Collaboration with IM

In her blog “Web Worker Daily” Anne Zelenka claims “Why Instant Messaging is Better for Collaboration than Email” . I’m not repeating her points, it’s still a recommended reading. I agree in most points since email is just suffering from the …

By: Don’t Ping me « Perils of a Wandering Mind

Don’t Ping me « Perils of a Wandering Mind — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:32:11 +0000

[...] Ping me Webworker daily ran an article on how IM’s are better than emails for work-life productivity. Well, even though IM’s [...]

By: Shaffer

Shaffer — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:33:37 +0000

Using IM in business is a great tool. Its short and to the point. If you need a task done across the office just shoot an IM. A phone call takes too long with hellos and goodbyes and an email is just absurd. IM, the quick way to communicate.

http://getbloggednow.blogspot.com/