Technology in Communications

Interesting article on a Swiss study on communication options.

A recent Swiss study finds that as the communication options available to us expand, we tend to narrow the uses and audience for each

And the options are growing...

It's one of the surprising recent findings of a study carried out in Switzerland. In the last few years our communication environment has been expanding at a very fast pace. The lone fixed-line telephone has given way to multiple fixed and mobile phones, e-mail,instant messaging (IM), text messaging, voice-over-Internet-protocol(VoIP) free (or near-free) telephony and videoconferencing, and other interactive channels such as blogs and wikis.

This expanded communication environment raises some questions: Are people"specializing" their use of different communication channels? For example, do mobile-phone, fixed-line, and e-mail users differentiate their usage of those tools in terms of content, communication partners,and habits? Are new channels affecting how existing channels are used?

Here is the articles conclusion:

So do new channels affect how existing channels are used? According to Broadbent, yes. Each new channel or media that appears slowly redefines the uses of the older existing media, she suggests: IM is currently redefining usage of short messaging; blogging is redefining the usage of e-mail; VoIP is changing the nature of a phone call. New patterns of communication emerge slowly, stabilize for a period, and then change again when new channels come along.

What role does cost play in shifting usage from one channel to the other?" Cost does play a role, but it's not absolute." She cites as evidence the fact that we use cell phones from home although it's more expensive and we have alternatives available. The cost is off set by convenience: With phone numbers stored in a cell phone's memory, it's more practical to take the device out of our pocket and push a button to place a call.

Even if it is just to call the same four or five people over and over.

technorati tags:media, email, blogging, cell, phone, IM, instant, messaging, VoIp, Communication, e-mail, change, channels

You get Flock, thats what! I just discovered this tool last Friday, at the recommendation of our engineer, and I have been playing around with it over the weekend. So far, I'm impressed. Here is what I find useful so far:

1. Got all set up with a Flicker account, and I'll be inviting my whole family to set up accounts, so we can share photos. The browser made Flicker usable for me! I was also able to do a search and find the account for our on-retainer web designer, who happens to be an awesome photographer. You can check out his work here.
   
   
2. I set up the blogging tool, and I can now blog about any article or RSS feed I'm reading--on any one of my many Blogger.com blogs I write on!! For an impulsive writer like myself, this is invaluable! I get an idea--BOOM--I write it in and Its done! This is going to help me better manage my time and contribute more frequently to my various blogs. You can check them out: Latino Issues Archive, Denver NSHMBA Blog, and of course this one.
   
   
3. I have all my various RSS feeds set up, and I can read them by collection or by individual feed! So, I created so far 4 folders:
   
• Townhall Feeds: This includes all of Townhall.com's columnists, provided via RSS feed, all of the official Townhall.com blog feeds, and of course, all of the Townhall.com user blogs! I am the Online Community Manager for Townhall.com, so Flock allows me to consume every single user generated blog post on a daily basis. We are talking about over 1,000 user blogs!! Only Flock!
  
  
• Daily Reed: These are blogs I read every day, like Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Babalublog, and others (as I ad them). Again, the idea is to facilitate the process so I can get more reading done in less time--and pick what I want to read and what I am not interested in. Talk about empowering, technology like Flock allows me to stay more informed, and keep track of more sources.
  
  
• MSM: I have a folder where I have set up RSS feeds for a few (not many) MSM news feeds, to help me understand what it is the rest of the world is hearing.
  
  
• Flock Picks: Flock provides various recommendations in several categories, so I set up a folder and subscribed to some that seemed interesting. Mostly, I picked out some business feeds to stay on top of. This should be helpful with my National Society of Hispanic MBA Blogging, as well as my MBA graduate studies.
  
4. Of course, Flock is built upon the reliable and familiar Firefox platform, so I get to enjoy the tabbed browsing I enjoy. Now, if they would make Flock accept the pluggins and tools that Firefox has, I would be a happy camper.
   

As you can tell by now, this is quite a powerful communication technology. It is helping me stay connected with family, stay informed and up to date with the information I find relevant and necessary, and it organizes the excessive amounts of content I want to consume, and puts it all together in one place.

What does this mean to the advertiser, you ask? Well, to start, most of these RSS feeds do not provide full text, so when I click on a story of interest, it opens that article and web site in a new tab--providing the publisher with a good number of ad impressions. The key point is, I clicked on what I wanted, and Flock helped me filter through my interests to find the content I wanted. This can only increase page views over long term, because I don't get frustrated searching and clicking around looking for something that will catch my attention.

Well, thats all for now. You can check out Flock, and download it for free, right here.