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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