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I am quite familiar with IRC (in fact, I use efnet on a regular basis at
home), but IRC is just not a good way to send small communications back
and forth, unless the person is there, actively chatting. If I want to
send a message to my boss, he would have to login to the IRC server
(assuming he was in the same IRC server), and would have to have the
client open (my experience is with ircii and mIRC) to facilitate the
communication of that message. Most messages will be facilitated via
chat rooms, which often scroll, and like email, messages can quickly be
lost.
My comment on the IRC server was pretty much because it really isn't
published outside the ACNS world (with the exception of this NAG list).
It isn't listed on the ACNS or AIS menu of services, nor is it on David
Gift's list of business services on campus. It is hard to know if it is
a service that is actually supported (for example, if I spent the effort
of training the 30 office staff here on how to use it, will the server
remain online 24/7 should we need to use it). For business
communications, we need something that is centralized, and supported.
With a campus-wide Jabber server, or centralized AIM / MSN server, we
would be able to have a very client-agnostic system that would be able
to do federation of access (between schools or organizations), or
centralization, depending on how it is setup. Jabber has a few
open-source or community projects out there that even support Kerebos
authentication, and support features such as help-desk, or screen
sharing. There is even one I have been looking at that has hooks into
the Avaya Campus PBX that would allow messages and presence (away
messages) to be set right from the physical phone on people's desks
(without requiring a user to be logged into a pc). Jabber/AIM/MSN/ICQ
are also well supported on many mobile devices, such as BlackBerry and
Windows Mobile.
-Nick Kwiatkowski
MSU Telecom Systems
-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Brian Martinez
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 4:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Collaboration Option "D" - Other
Kwiatkowski, Nicholas writes:
> (b) Instant Messaging - This would be useful if we were ALL on a
> common platform. I realize that IRC has been setup for some people in
> ACNS, but that is a form of active communication. IM is a form of
> passive communication, where I don't have to be watching the screen to
> get a message. This is akin to having a phone on the desk (which is
the
> most useful for me).
>
Nicholas,
I just wanted to clear a few things regarding IRC as it is my little
"thing"
for lack of something better to say.
We have IRC setup for anyone on campus to use, it is not exclusive to
ACNS.
Hence the reason we are always parading it around on NAG from time to
time.
In fact, we've had a few stray joins from several members of the NAG
community, and frankly I was happy to see that. It has led to us
meeting at
least one person, in real life, whom we only knew via name on this list.
Another person a few of my colleagues already knew from taking classes
with
years ago.
IRC can be and IS used for passive communication all the time by us. In
exactly the same way an instant message is. You simply send someone a
/msg
"hey when you get back to your keyboard, let me know whats up..." Which
is
the same as double clicking someone's screen name in AIM/Jabber/etc. and
saying the same thing. What I like about IRC better is how it brings
groups
together. I know you can do group type stuff in other IM environments,
but
call me old school (I guess).
I sort of see what you are getting at by saying its active, because
yeah, if
you are sitting in a channel and there's lots of discussion going on,
you
don't want to sort through lines and lines of people talking to see the
one
line addressed to you. But that's also why modern day IRC clients
(Pidgin,
Xchat, MIRC, Chatzilla, whatever else) have a highlighting feature for
when
you are addressed, and/or certain keywords are said. And again, also
why
the /msg nickname exists.
Alright, I think I've said enough about IRC. The long and the short of
it
people is, USE IRC!! (irc.acns.msu.edu) Also, did I mention that SWAP
was
dope?!
./brm
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