Eric Mack On-Line

Instant messaging is moving beyond simple text.
~59% of enterprises have deployed enterprise IM platforms.
IM is becoming the dashboard for UC (Unified Communications).
 

From left to right ... Adam Gartenberg (IBM), Nick Fera (Parlano), Eran Barak (Reuters Messaging), and Irwin Lazaar (Nemertes Research)

Eran Barak, Global Head of Marketing and Strategy, Reuters Messaging:
Builds specific tools for financial service markets. Focused on three Cs. Community, Communication, and Content.
Community: finding people by expertise or interest, across organizations, around the world.
We need to see better federation between networks. Today, you can email anyone on any network, but you can't IM outside of your own network. the walls must come down between these separate communities. This is not a technology problem; it's a political/marketing/legal [and greed] one. Someday, you'll be able to have just one IM address.

Nick Fera, CEO Parlano:
Trend is moving toward cloaking - people overwhelmed by availability. People going numb and this defeats purpose of presence. New tools needed to facilitate collaboration with presence and awareness tools. Value of persistent chat - example of stock trading floor.

Adam Gartenberg, Senior Offering Manager, IBM Software:
(Manager of Lotus SameTime IM and Web Conferencing product)
IM is now about using technology to help people find, reach, and connect.
There's a social contract that comes with IM & presence. Sets his status to "Availably but busy, please e-mail unless urgent."
It's important that the datacomm side of IT work closely with the rest of IT as decisions on either side will impact the other.


Lots of other conversation/discussion, but nothing needed to note.