Blog: Instant Messaging

We've worked hard to get NextBillion.net up and running. For this post
I want to feature the user profile page customizations. If you go to
www.nextbillion.net/profile you can see the user profiles listing. If
you are signed into the site you will see private messenger and
add-to-buddylist on this listing to let you quickly contact another
user. A partial inspiration for this work are the profile pages over
here at
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/francisraven which is based on
zope/plone, for example. In Drupal, I like the way you can tab over to
the 'track' tab to see latest posts, and then identify the type of post
and awaiting comments in the table view of the tracker module. Check
it out here: http://www.nextbillion.net/user/17. With 'track' data in
a tab (default display in 4.5), it keeps the main profile page nice and
tidy as compared to the digitaldivide.net example.

A few days ago AOL released a beta version of a new instant messaging service called AIM Sync, because it sycs with Outlook. What is does is allow users to add contacts stored in Outlook to their buddy list. If that user is online, AOL's running man icon will appear in your Outlook box next to the contact. To start a chat or send a text message to her cell, just click the icon.

This seems like a pretty neat development, although I haven't used AIM since freshman year of college. But I guess that's the point - to make it more appealing to adults adn to all those businesss who use Outlook as their email client.

This weekend Development Seed deployed a new site (www.idpsa.org)
for American University's International Development Program Student Association (IDPSA) here in Washington, DC. It was previously on Drupal 4.4.2, and decided to try it on CivicSpace. The response has been amazing! Contact Module - We are using the contact module to create a comprehensive lists of international development orgs to help students find jobs and internships. They can also easily down load them and import it into their address books now. Private Messenger – Now people can use the site better to network and communicate privately with out compromising any of the personal information. Coming soon to the site... phplist- We will soon activate phplist so that the IDPSA can manage mass newsletter emails via the site. Calender module- The calender is the most important feature on the site right now and the new ability to export events into iCal formation and import it into even outlook is going to be a huge success for helping people track all the events in and around the city with their busy schedules.

Just thinking about what Craigslist provides, and ebay. What services can be provided via a chat client? With MSN Messenger you have about 150 characters to write your nickname, then any other information sits on your profile page on a website. What about providing for more immediate, optional space such as: five things I am selling or five things I am looking to buy, second hand. You fill these blanks in, and when you hover over the screen name or you are chatting with someone, you can hover over something and instantly see in an alt tag style the five things the user is selling or looking to buy, then with a click while hovering, you will be taken to the user's profile page for more detailed information. [node:91] People have sometimes hundreds of contacts on their lists, people they know, near and far from them, to provide an immediate pool of contacts to buy, sell, trade, or share interests with. What else could you do? It would at least be a good teaser to the user's profile page or a portal that can then handle the remainder of the transaction, discussion, or action requested or recommended. Action requested - like sign this petition, go to this local concert, check out this product, don't buy that product; just short little messages to improve messaging and networking on the fly, via chat.

Sorry, I've been away from the blog for a bit. Back now. This morning in bright and sunny Ayacucho I open up my buddylist for MSN and check to see who is online...is there anyone I need to catch up with? Set a meeting? Who didn't respond to that email I sent last week? Who is online? The aliases read:

"Jose Luis "Venta Speedy" Cel: 97XXXXX Tel: 81XXXX"
Jose is selling speedy lines, or known as ADSL internet connections to houses in Ayacucho.

"MARTES a las 6pm reunion del FRA, en hotel Chaska, Pavel"
Pavel is announcing a meeting of a local painting/artist association for next Tuesday

"Estudio derecho porque en este pais a nadie le gusta leer, jaja!"
I study law because in this country (Peru) no one likes to read, haha!"

"Gasuri - www.los40.com - [thumbs-up icon]"
Gasuri advertising a website, sounds like a music site, i'm curious enough to go check it out after this post

This morning I open MSN Messenger, probably the most popular chat client in Ayacucho, Peru, where I am right now. What's in the advertising space? A Chase Platinum Mastercard offer, 5.9% APR, 4 different designs, the add totally in English, the link (I clicked on it, maybe they'll see where I came from) to a site totally in English, the offer targeted to University students in the USA. I do not know where Hotmail got that information, but they must have bought my private information from someone...I never filled out a hotmail profile nor indicated this information in the registration of any Microsoft products.

Anyways, this is a waste of money for them. What's the payoff if they did regional advertising? I'm clearly using a Peru IP address. Even further, they should know that it's an IP for Ayacucho, where there is no English language academy and many people are indeed bilungual, but in spanish/quechua.