What is your preferred mode of communication?

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL OSTERMAN ON MESSAGING
10/27/05
Today's focus: What is your preferred mode of communication?

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Our personal communication policies
* Links related to Messaging
* Featured reader resource
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This newsletter sponsored by Nortel
Building the Mobile Enterprise Online Expo

The workplace is changing rapidly. Employees need to be
untethered from their desks while remaining connected and
accessible. This online event helps you solve your enterprise
mobility challenges by bringing together industry leaders,
including Nortel's CTO and CIO and RIM's VP Enterprise Systems,
to discuss the hottest topics in enterprise mobility. Broadcast
live to your desktop on Nov. 8, 2005. Register today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=117977
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USERS AWASH IN EMERGING WIRELESS OPTIONS

The days of simply giving traveling employees a cell phone for
talking and a laptop for dial-up data are long gone, replaced by
a complex landscape of overlapping choices. There are decisions
to be made regarding devices, carrier contracts, performance and
reach. How do you know which decisions are the right ones? Click
here for more:
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=118166
_______________________________________________________________

Today's focus: What is your preferred mode of communication?

By Michael Osterman

Almost all of us have policies and preferences as they relate to
communications. For example, we don't want to be called at home
after a certain time of night or before a certain time in the
morning on weekdays; we may not want to be called during dinner
or during a Monday Night Football game, etc. We may also have
similar types of policies at work, even if those policies are
unstated, such as not wanting to be called by telephone when
working on a deadline that's less than an hour away.

I believe that these policies will ultimately result in the
convergence of workplace e-mail, instant messaging (IM), fax and
voice into a single communications hierarchy that is driven
largely by policies stored in an enterprise directory. Using
such a capability, you might come up with the following
policies:

* Office voice is my preferred mode of communication and IM is
  secondary between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. unless my presence status is
  busy, then default to e-mail.

* Outside of these hours, IM is my preferred mode and e-mail is
  secondary unless my presence status is busy, then default to
  voice.

* If a problem is urgent and my IM status is away, my preference
  is cell.

Using a system like this would do two things. First, for
recipients it would allow them to receive communications using
the medium of their choice based on the time of day, their
presence status, how busy they are at a given time, etc. For
senders, it would free them from having to guess how recipients
want to be contacted or the most efficient way to contact them,
and it would free them from having to know all of the modes of
communication that a recipient has available to them. For
example, if all a sender knows is the recipient's e-mail
address, the directory would be able to send the message to any
device the user has available based on that user's preferences.

Some of these capabilities already exist in various forms, but I
believe that this type of hierarchy, driven primarily by
recipients of communications and not senders, will become the
norm. I'd appreciate your feedback on how useful this would be
or how ridiculous it sounds: Please drop me a line at
<mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com>.

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5. CTO: BellSouth lost 9 COs to Katrina
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_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Michael Osterman

Michael D. Osterman is the principal of Osterman Research
<http://www.ostermanresearch.com/>, a market research firm that
helps organizations understand the markets for messaging,
directory and related products and services. He can be reached
by clicking here <mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter sponsored by Nortel
Building the Mobile Enterprise Online Expo

The workplace is changing rapidly. Employees need to be
untethered from their desks while remaining connected and
accessible. This online event helps you solve your enterprise
mobility challenges by bringing together industry leaders,
including Nortel's CTO and CIO and RIM's VP Enterprise Systems,
to discuss the hottest topics in enterprise mobility. Broadcast
live to your desktop on Nov. 8, 2005. Register today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=117976
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Messaging newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/gwm/index.html
_______________________________________________________________
CASE STUDY WEBCAST: OfficeMax Takes Email Security to the Max

Much more than just a product showcase, this new webcast is an
in-depth examination of how an enterprise of 35,000 users on
three continents developed a corporate email defense strategy.
Tune in 24/7 and come away with proven solutions:
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=118308
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE

GRID TAKING SHAPE IN THE ENTERPRISE

Grid computing continues to gain ground and vendors such as IBM,
Platform Computing, Sun, SAS and Univa are launching services,
products and partnerships to support this growth. But will
challenges such as software licensing, security and bandwidth
issues hinder grid rollouts? Click here for more:

<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/101005-grid.html>
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