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Telecommunications without telephones

SSERU (Stockholm School of Economics, Russia) #5
December,2004

Every time I remember Stockholm School I think: "This is an amazingly nice place, wonderful people, but they are a world away from IT". I tried to figure out why this feeling started from the first moment of being there. The first sign, perhaps, is an absence of the maniacal urge towards being on-line. Why bother if the person is in their right place, and their cell phone is switched on? Why immediately start looking for an electric power point and a mains, scan the ether in search of WiFi net, and if people are absent get plugged on through GPRS and charge your laptop as soon as possible? The reason for this doesn't seem to be the notorious 'information addiction', but the habit of not only being available, but omnipresent.

When I was a child, I used to wake up in the dark and listen to the muffled television in the living-room when it was in the evening, or to my parents' wheezing, if it was in the middle of the night. When there were sounds, I wasn't scared. These days, e-mails, ICQ, skype's calls, joyful icon blinking are the signs that my virtual surroundings are alive. I feel calmer online!

Mikhail Zavileysky
zav@dataart.com

Skype

"I've just talked to an interesting Japanese person", says a colleague of mine and takes her headphone off. Usually people would write: "...and hangs up (the receiver)", but I am deliberately not, because there was no receiver. I am sure of that, the only thing he did was to press the 'hang up' button in the Skype application (http://www.skype.com). "We register all our managers there, all the operating information, that Japanese guy has shown great interest in our company, I've given him all the details", says Zhenya, folding the garniture consisting of a headphone and a microphone with whose help you can use Skype.

I will explain. Skype is a program for telephone communication via the Internet that is distributed free of charge. Skypå's interface slightly resembles the instant messenger window, a list of subscribers and a few main functions: call, hang up, look through information about each subscriber - all of that makes it very similar to a usual mobile phone (if, of course, you are not confused by the fact that a telephone has been realized on your computer.) One of the main things that distinguish Skype from a telephone (apart from the fact that it is advanced, free-of-charge provided you have a constant Internet channel, and easy to use) is an opportunity to connect several subscribers at once and start a conference without leaving your workplace and running around the office, or offices, often located on different sides of the ocean. Finally, Skype is fashionable: as our experience shows, when asking how they found this or that partner or customer, some people say: "He found me in Skype"

Liza Shtof
betsy@dataart.com

LiveJournal

People have kept diaries since prehistoric times. Most of them have only been read by their authors and maybe close relatives, very few have been published, only several have made it to the cinema. When the Internet appeared and became widespread everyone had the opportunity not only to make notes without a pen and notebook, but to present their creative works for anyone to see and comment.

LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com) is a good example of so-called 'blogs' - or online diaries. Nothing but an ordinary browser is needed to record any idea that comes into your mind or describe the events of a day, whenever you feel like it. Access to them can only be limited according to the author's will. Apart from such notes "on the cuff" (sometimes rather wide ones), users have an opportunity to find groups of people who share their interests (stamp collectors and so on) and are of similar jobs.

Informal happenings, which are not quite appropriate to be seen on a corporate website, can be covered and discussed in a company's diary and much better describe the inner spirit of a team, which is of extreme importance for both potential employees and potential customers.

Alexey Pchelintsev
bleys@dataart.com

MSN Messenger

You might think at first: why do we need anything else when we have the usual means of communication that use sounds or letters? But it's not that easy, sometimes it is not enough to put it into words if you want your idea to be understood. Then Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com/) can help. Apart from standard functions allowing to exchange messages and send files, forbid or permit people to send messages to you, the Messenger has some other advantages. The most pleasant of them are:

You can use Messenger for voice and videoconferences;
You can adjust the program's interface to your liking;
Application sharing helps you to see what's going on the other speaker's screen. Not just to see – to control any program. Among the disadvantages of the service there is one thing worth mentioning: sometimes the speed with which your computers exchange data leaves much to be desired. Regardless of how close your workplaces are to each other, you are not guaranteed that the speed of information will be too slow.
A whiteboard in case you want to show a scheme or a drawing – you can use MS Paint, which all the people taking part in the conversation can see.

MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger are most popular in the USA and Canada, both with friends and business associates. The connection of the messenger and the service should be mentioned as well, with both NET Passport and Hotmail mailboxes. And, despite all the similarities of the two messengers, there's still one key difference: only Windows Messenger can be connected to the Exchange Instant Messaging service used by many organizations.

Lena Nasalskaya
ayashi@dataart.com

ICQ

Fa sharp, re (F#, D), the recognizable combination of notes that you can often hear in commercials, is the signal informing you that you've received a new ICQ (www.icq.com) message. Today ICQ is one of the most popular means of communication via Internet. Over more than seven years of its existence ICQ it has changed from a simple Instant Messenger into quite a complicated tool providing its users with a wide range of additional functions. ICQ gives you an opportunity to exchange files with other users, send SMS and e-mail letters free of charge and even to play different games with other users. You'll never forget your friend's birthday and will even be able to send them an electronic greeting card. With ICQ you can also chat with several people simultaneously and use many other services.

Yevgeny Sokhransky
Sokhransky@dataart.com

One letter is a step towards all the humanity

When the company where I work introduced a limit on communication via direct mail lists, it seemed very strange. It is easier to write to a single person than to write a letter that everyone would see! Years have passed, and now it's hard to imagine a letter that nobody will see apart from its addressee. And letters sent to direct mail lists have always been acknowledged as authoritative documents.

The good thing about e-ail is that it can serve as a conductor to the rich world of mail lists. It's the lists which have become one of the most comfortable means of communications, both internal (within a company) and external.

One of the brightest examples of mass communication are yahoogroups.com. For instance, in the Business Schools section (http://finance.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Business___Finance/Business_Schools) alone there are 9944 communities, and in Alumni section - 2011 such groups, organized by graduates of business schools such as Harvard, and anyone can join most of them.

Mail lists can become a comfortable tool inside a company. How many addresses do you have to type to communicate with your colleagues? Frequently the list might occupy the screen space completely. But you can unite them in one list and only give it one address. So, you get an opportunity to get the message over to everybody and not forget anyone when sending.

Yulia Zavileyskaya
jul@dataart.com

Knowledge delivered home

Virtual seminars and trainings on different topics have become bestsellers of the 2004 season. Of course, now you don't have to waste time on traveling to a seminar. The main advantage of the seminars is that they allow to take part in events within the borders of your motherland and in other countries, such as the USA, Great Britain, and others. Now you can listen to a lecture about methods used to promote Coca-Cola and Sprite directly from the brand manager Mark Dooley. Such seminars have even each been given official names: Teleseminar and Webinar.

Teleconferences are cheaper and simpler. It is enough to call the telephone number and enter a pin-code, after that the participant will be plugged on to the conference. The simplest example is here: (http://www.freeconference.com)

Webinar has become both a fashionable and a comfortable way to hold seminars. Even Microsoft with its Live Meeting has entered the struggle for the customer. The technology of videoconferences allows presentations to be given, the audience to ask questions and answers received. You can listen to the whole thing either via the Internet or on the phone with the help of teleconference technology.

The good thing is that these works in both directions: you can both learn and teach.

Yulia Zavileyskaya
jul@dataart.com

A new trend in the Internet are social networks - services that allow people to make new useful contacts and to communicate with people who share the same interests. These groups are organized according to the principle of "happiness letters", which turns out very useful for this purpose. Having been registered, you start looking for your acquaintances: you send them a request about including them in your "circle". The ones that are not members of this network receive an invitation automatically by the server. As the circle of your personal acquaintances increases, more and more people appear who are connected with you. There is a theory that all the people in the world are related to each other through six other people. Within LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) I haven't come across a chain of more than five people. For example, Roman Abramovich is four steps far from me. Now there are more than 1000000 people registered in LinkedIn, among them there are certainly interesting and useful contacts. President of DataArt Yevgeny Goland says that for MBA graduates LinkedIn is now the most popular tool to look for a job.

Yevgeniya Kurts
jane@dataart.com

Zinglet

If a usual e-mail letter seems too ordinary to you, it makes sense to use special services that can help you customize the looks of your electronic correspondence. Your partners and customers will be pleased to see your photo and logo in the letter. They will definitely remember your stylish and beautiful letters and notice them among the huge number of e-mails received during the day. Such services are extremely useful for correspondence inside fast-growing companies. Sometimes you get a letter from a colleague and try hard to recall who they are. Branded email (http://www.zinglet.com/) will help you in such situations.

Yevgeniya Kurts
jane@dataart.com

Media Contact

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vica@dataart.com
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