IMPlanet Trade Show Wrap-up

[Jeff]

The IMPlanet industry trade show for instant messaging was held last week in San Francisco. This show is geared at people in the IM industry (developing IM products and tools) and corporations looking at leveraging instant messaging technology.

According to InstantMessagingPlanet, a site devoted to the subject of Enterprise Instant Messaging, the main buzz at this years conference was around presence.

What is presence? It's the ability to quickly see if your friends and associates are online and available right now. All instant messaging applications have presence built-in to their buddy lists, but new companies are finding ways to extend this, allowing people to "see" whether you're available when they read an email, a Word document, or browse a web page on the corporate intranet with your name on it. In other words, they don't have to have you on their buddy list in order to detect your online presence.

Why is presence useful, particularly to corporations? Especially in larger organizations it's impossible to know everyone. Connecting with the right person with the specific expertise you need can get tricky. That's where presence kicks in. You might be looking at a document and need to contact the contributors (none of whom you know). Presence will let you see who's online and contact them immediately. The same controls can be used in expert directories, knowledge management systems, department intranets; the list goes on and on.

Curious? Read the entire show debrief at InstantMessagingPlanet.com.

Jeff Hester aka "Mister BigBlueBall.com"

[rustedtight]

Hehehehe, Imagine if PRESENCE were made mandatory on all email, SPAM would cease the following day. Bring it on.


rustedtight