Synchronous Online Communication

This post from October 10 on my school blog summarizes my experiences that week using Meebo and Skype, with some mentions of how libraries might use both of these tools, instant messaging and voice-over internet protocols (VOIP). I think that using IM should have been part of 23 Things, even though it has been around a while (so have blogs, though). We really should be doing IM. I used to hate IM until using Meebo to put the TPZ together while working in 3 different buildings. I had a great experience using IM chat to tech Norton/Symantec tech support recently.
Here is the original post:

I have used Meebo before and I really like Meebo. I had added my cohorts from the work project of creating the Technology Petting Zoo for Santa Cruz Public Library’s Staff Day. The TPZ3 often communicated by Meebo, since we work in three different buildings. We would just keep a Meebo widget open, if only to tell somebody “I’m going into the “library examples” page of the TPZ wiki to edit; I’ll let you know when I’m done.” We also divvied up work this way. We had a few scheduled Meebo meetings. I had no problem adding them to my buddies list, though on this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I had difficulty adding my group members for 246. We all had this trouble; it was mentioned in the Saturday Elluminate session, on the wiki, and in our Skype teleconference. On Tuesday, I was able to easily add buddies again, so I think it was a brief glitch on Meebo’s end. I did not do much with Meebo this week, but I IMed with Sonia for a while on Skype, which is a perfectly adequate IM tool. I typed a little bit longer than she did, because once we moved to both try our first Skype VOIP “phone call” I accidentally muted myself on the Logitech headset (I knew this was a possibility, yet it was the last place I tried when troubleshooting; I can be such an idiot sometimes). Three of us communicated with three of Group 1 for a brief time; six people teleconferencing did not work so well; the sound was choppy, then started breaking up towards complete unintelligibility. Three to maybe four people communicating by voice is surprisingly clear, about the same quality as telephone– a stable land line sort of telephone quality.

Sarah Houghton-Jan and Aaron Schmidt, in the SirsiDynix webcast, provided some good examples of libraries using IM to do reference for teens. Once the teens make the library their IM “buddies,” the library becomes part of their life. They also provided other users who IM, such as grandparents who learn IM to talk to their grandkids. Meebo has the abililty to work with the other larger commercial web-based IM providers, and the embedded Meebo widget allows anyone who is on line and has found the library page with the widget the ability to IM with library staff. She maintains in her April 25, 2007 post, that IT staff feel, with reason, that IM provides more challenges to network security than email, but she provides some best practices and some articles and arguments to use when discussing your need to have IM with your IT staff. I must say that the more recent (2003) article she cited about the problems, the one by Neil Hindocha, made me very wary about stuff that is a little over my head. It was mentioned in the Saturday Elluminate session that many people do not understand how to use IM (will a real person type back? what is that thing? if you’re online, why aren’t you responding instantly (it’s called “instant’? If you’re not online, can I leave a message?). I think providing IM is just another way of reaching our users where they live. It should not replace other options, but the Meebo widget is free, staff can learn how to set up Meebo to make it less vulnerable, and IT can spend what money and time are necessary to plug the IM security holes to make this economical option possible . Not everyone will use it; it’s just another tool .

I searched through the Librarian in Black blog to last October, and found the entry about the Future of Libraries II conference at the San Francisco Public Library main branch last October because I had remembered that some library reported using hand-held PDAs for roaming reference in the stacks and using Skype on headsets to perform roaming telephone reference. They had reported that none of that had worked well. They reported that the Skype VOIP did not work well at all because of the one-way-simultaneous voice limitation and the background noise. The hand-helds did not work because they were always scrolling around on the small screens. This is the only report I have of a library using Skype, but I think from trying it that Skype could really be useful for those patrons who have already downloaded Skype and feel comfortable using it. The combination of VOIP and IM would make Skype, when it is working properly, more accessible for blind people who also have a screen reader or people who are just low vision but not quite blind. I have yet to try to Skype some library across the world (several on the best practices were in Australia, a place I have always wanted to visit; maybe I can Skype VOIP Australia, say g’day and ask something about Australia).