Is Instant Messaging replacing the coffee machine?
The 21st century networked organisation seems to have found an alternative to chatting by the Coffee machine. A lot of informal conversations are happening across the network between colleagues through instant messaging services.
What is even more interesting is that we have here another example of a communication channel whose adoption has emerged bottom up out of individual initiatives and not as part of a grand organisational schema.
Some data in support of this emergence come from the Radicati Group "Instant Messaging Corporate Survey, 2004-2005". Radicati surveyed 78 global companies corresponding to about 900 K personnel. A large majority of organisations (76%) do not provide their personnel with internal IM platforms. Yet, about half of them are users of IM. This difference between number of users and number of organisations which have deployed IM gives a rough indication of the extent of free public IM services usage at work.
The report also gives some indications concerning IM usage in the workplace. Respondents describe informal internal communication, presence awareness and private use.
Where: unspecified (global companies)
When: October (publication)
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