I was speaking with my father in India yesterday and he had a lot of questions about the election system in the US. It is amazing how much disinformation there is about the US political system around the world. Not that it matters to US citizenry but as an interesting data point most world things that officially the US is a bi-party system, with direct election of the president.
In addition, the Hindi news channel was carrying a very detailed analysis of the two candidates. Also, they had a pannel of people give their opinion about what the effects of either candidates foreign policies would be on India. I'd guess that most nation's media are carrying similar analysis and what-is-in-store for me analysis.
Well the providers are doing it because they want to find the next "killer app". However, doing this will ruin IM they way we know it. One of the main advantages of IM is instant, read fast, communication for short stuff. More detailed and complicated stuff goes in an email and even more involved conversations happen over the phone.
Doing more and more graphical stuff might bring in more kid types into the fold, but would seriously ruin it for the rest of us - specially it is probably going to require more clicks or keystrokes to do the same thing.
An analogy is HTML email. It is great for the junk that my company sends to all its employees - I get to see the company colors(guess that is supposed to make me more loyal) but how many of us attempt to colorize our day to day emails? Should I use ctrl-b to highlight the work - duh?
I have been thinking about communication for a while now. And while my reply does not deal with your direct question, I feel it is more important to have direct, open and non-fragmentative communication environment in your group than any prop traditions that you can find.
Direct and open are easily understood words. Let me explain non-fragmentative. This is a word I came up with to explain what happens where I word. Our core group is divided among different managers. It is still a core and singular group since the source is common. However different managers have different controls over stuff. This means communication that is directed at the group only, most of the time, makes it to a fragment of the group, depending on origin. Now, many of us have to answer questions from outside, that beg complete knowledge of the product. However, since no-one has that, due to the "marvellous" communication model that we have, we often make mistakes.
More than looking bad, this is very frustrating and does NOT help foster a feeling of ownership and pride in the product. That is just a precursor to disaster.
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In addition, the Hindi news channel was carrying a very detailed analysis of the two candidates. Also, they had a pannel of people give their opinion about what the effects of either candidates foreign policies would be on India. I'd guess that most nation's media are carrying similar analysis and what-is-in-store for me analysis.
which world are you living in? Or are you not getting a mobile phone because it somehow "invades your privacy". http://kantster.blogspot.com
Doing more and more graphical stuff might bring in more kid types into the fold, but would seriously ruin it for the rest of us - specially it is probably going to require more clicks or keystrokes to do the same thing.
An analogy is HTML email. It is great for the junk that my company sends to all its employees - I get to see the company colors(guess that is supposed to make me more loyal) but how many of us attempt to colorize our day to day emails? Should I use ctrl-b to highlight the work - duh?
http://kantster.blogspot.com
Direct and open are easily understood words. Let me explain non-fragmentative. This is a word I came up with to explain what happens where I word. Our core group is divided among different managers. It is still a core and singular group since the source is common. However different managers have different controls over stuff. This means communication that is directed at the group only, most of the time, makes it to a fragment of the group, depending on origin. Now, many of us have to answer questions from outside, that beg complete knowledge of the product. However, since no-one has that, due to the "marvellous" communication model that we have, we often make mistakes.
More than looking bad, this is very frustrating and does NOT help foster a feeling of ownership and pride in the product. That is just a precursor to disaster.
Please don't do that.
http://kantster.blogspot.com