There are several Internet-based person-to-person interaction tools that we
as a community could adopt. The downside of publishing IM contact
information is that it might increase your potential exposure to spam and
other garbage - but generally the benefits should outweigh the downsides.
The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) requires the services of a host computer to
support a dedicated chatroom. This wouldn't be tough to arrange I think. It
basically allows realtime text discussions between a group of people -
everyone sees what you type, although you have the option of making aside
comments to a particular participant in the chat. Typically a group would
set up a timetable for online discussions.
Instant messaging services such as AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo
messenger allow real-time person-to-person message exchange, and you get
real-time status information as to who is online at any time. You can
exchange pictures, files, etc. as required over the IM linkup. It also
supports multi-way discussions.
There are several video instant messengers around as well, but that would
require webcams and microphones for the parties involved, plus it's noisy to
bystanders.
I use Trillian (a Windoze application),
http://www.download.com/Trillian/3000-2150-10047473.html, to monitor ICQ and
MSN instant-messaging services simultaneously. My ICQ id is 38933358, and
MSN Messenger id is bigendian@hotmail.com. I don't have an AOL messenger
account but I'm sure that could be arranged pretty quickly.
Best regards,
Theo
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