Communicating via IM, email, or mouth.
Posted on March 30th, 2012 by craighopeSorry for the image. Caught your eye right?
This is a followup to this old post ( http://craighope.com/wordpress/?p=1390 ).
I like Instant Messaging (IM) and I had it.
I like the “instant” feedback (duh). I like that you can have multiple convo’s simultaneously. I like that you can archive the conversation.
I dislike IM because it can be intrusive, bothersome, and too interrupting. When you get an IM, you feel you have to respond immediately as opposed to email or a phone call. Where you have multiple convo’s (a like) it is also a bother when you are having a convo and someone IM’s you and interrupt. They don’t know you are having other IM’s going (not their fault). I wish I could see how many convo’s others have going so that I can think twice about my need to IM then.
In my opinion, the best way to IM is to open it up during a conference call and have side conversations with your colleagues. You can have a little sidebar while the conf call is going on then engage with better info.
People often misuse IM. If your question, comment, whatever is something that can be responded to later, send an email. When you send an email, people have the courtesy (mostly) to respond to do you in a timely manner. An email (in my opinion) is something of a task that sits in my inbox that I will get to eventually. Priorities range.
One thing I can’t stand is this. I will send someone an email of minor importance but requires a response and that email NEVER gets responded to. That pisses me off. When you never respond, I interpret that as “I am not that important”. To that I say F off!
Moving on…
I’ve witnessed this phenomenon where people refrain from using email for the reason that they don’t want their words “recorded”. I don’t get this line of thinking at all. In my estimation, no matter how you communicate your message will be remembered no matter if it is an email or not. If you write, say, communicate something that later changes in nature of fact etc. that’s fine. You have the right to retract or change your message. Maybe its because people are afraid of being wrong. I get that, but I also respect you more if you can admit you were incorrect about something. Moving on…
What have we learned?
Use email when don’t need immediate feedback. Use IM only if necessary, don’t overuse it.


Much of our interactions with others occurs via texts, Facebook, email, phone calls, and sometimes in person. It can be very asynchronous. I personally don’t mind it. Some people prefer to engage in the communication and resolve the item immediately to some closure.
Quick review: The camera hardware is pretty good. The image is good quality. The software is not very good, but with a little work you can cobble something workable together. This camera does not pan or tilt and requires a power source (duh).







