From Tech Republic…
1.Video Conferencing
TechRepublic has had video conferencing (VC) equipment for many years, but 2005 was the first year my team and I consistently used the systems. This is due in large part to significant advancements in VC technology. It wasn’t too long ago that calls were placed over ISDN lines and could only be made through large, conference room systems. Today, we can make calls directly from our PCs via Ethernet and our VPN.
2.Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (IM) is another technology that’s been around for several years, but that I only started heavily using this year. Communicating with remote team members was always possible via our telephone system and e-mail, but I always hated sending one sentence e-mails–just more mail to clean out of my mailbox. Phone calls also seem like overkill when it comes to brief questions that require only a one- or two-word reply. I also find that short telephone conversations easily balloon into lengthy discussions. I’ll call a remote team member to discuss a single issue and 20 minutes later we’ve talked about a host of unrelated items. IM is prefect for keeping the conversation on target and under five minutes.
I personally use Cerulean Studios’ Trillian as I hate the extra junk that often comes along with MSN Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger.
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