Beyond IM: Welcome to the EM era
Instant Messaging (IM) is not dead or even dying, but EM is about to change everything. While IM emphasizes the immediacy of the communication, EM can represent the value of the communication. Then again, like any communications channel, what gets transmitted can also be pure drivel. EM, however, has tremendous potential for solving some of the biggest problems I face on a daily basis, and have been thinking about for over a decade, most especially the idea of annotating the world around us and sharing key insytes about what is happening and what I see as the important matters of the day.
What is EM? EM is “Everywhere Messaging” - in particular, Text-Web-IM-Blog/Site. Some may think the distinctions I am going to make are not important enough to consider it a separate category, but as we explore this topic further, it will become apparent that EM is game changing. When this idea struck me the other day, I did a search to see if anyone else was talking about EM yet and found little on the subject. In fact, only 470 results on Google and only 2 on Technorati, none of which talking about EM in the way that I am thinking about it. The #1 result on Google is a great paper on ACM from 2000 which is informative and visionary, but still thinking of it as a communications tool, and not within the context I imagine it as an annotation tool, a publishing tool, a personal journal, an instant feedback mechanism AND a communications tool.
I started thinking about the idea of EM the other day when I finally gave in to peer pressure and began to use my Twitter account. As you may know, it takes a lot to get me (and most people) to change behavioural patterns and make a new service a part of my daily life and routine. The value proposition must be compelling, it must be easy to use and it must ‘feel good’ to use. While Dodgeball seemingly has all these characteristics as well, I never fully embraced it enough to change my ongoing behaviour - even when other members of my community became addicts. Why is this? Well I believe the key difference was found by removing the prescribed context of physical proximity from the usage of the tool. The use of Twitter is not ‘artificially restricted’ by the instructions of use or the social purpose for which it is prescribed.
The reason for making this very big distinction between IM and EM is that the purpose and usage is quite different. I primarily use IM for communicating with another person - whether that is texting or IM’ing from my laptop does not really matter. One might argue that IM is on mobile phones, making it ‘everywhere’ you are, and rendering this distinction moot, but that is missing the point. With Twitter and other EM services, the purpose is not about communicating with another person instantly. While I could send a direct message to someone over an EM channel, it is probably not something that has a time imperative on it - ie, it is more about sharing something with someone at some point in time than about conversing with them right now.
Most importantly, with EM, I believe the message is more about me, my needs and my desire to be heard - it can also be more self serving along the same lines that social bookmarking is - to help me find something later. EM can just as easily be a tool for publishing (start following my Twitter account or check in on my personal Blog sidebar if you want to see this in action) as it is a tool for communicating with those I trust, or those that want to know what I am doing or thinking. As a tool for publishing, it can also be a tool for annotating and sharing.
For instance this morning I was watching a little TV while waiting for breakfast and happened across the Sundance Channel’s Iconoclast series - this was the pairing of Dave Chapelle and Maya Angelou. The connection the two of them built in front of my eyes, together with the depths and poignancy of their insytes actually brought me to tears - it was so moving. Now there have been many other experiences with media and the world around me that has really touched me in a way that inspired me to think differently, or to simply recognize the value and want to share it. More often than not, this moment passes without being captured because of more pressing matters - in other words, not having enough time to note the source, add my insytes and share it with you.
This morning, I Twittered this update “touched deeply by iconoclasts with maya angelou and dave chapelle“. While such a short statement does not have the depth of a blog post, I was able to apply the OHIO principle (Only Handle It Once) and publish the key information, instead of doing nothing. A whole new world of connectivity and knowledge sharing will soon open up through EM.
Of course, at this stage Twitter is really only a feature, a robust one, but it is not a complete solution within the contexts I envision it will be. As such, I expect to see numerous new uses of ‘Twitter like’ functionality in many other products, for many other communities very soon (if it is not happening already). The real interesting things happen when people can begin to use EM together with TagSpaces and other intelligent routing. It would be really great if Twitter would know that I have Direct TV and combined that understanding with some basic short codes such that I could have had a link to the show automatically appear in the message. This could look like “CH549:Inspired by Maya’s wisdom and Dave’s soulfullness, a must watch show”. The backend would see that I am on DirectTV, that channel 549 was Sundance and the time was 910am, at which time the Iconoclasts show was on air. Take this a step further with the ability to link directly to the video clip that preceded my EM and now things get really interesting…
Of course, there are many other potential uses we should consider beyond annotation and sharing key insytes. I have seen Twitter used to simply share a state of mind, which in an odd ways makes me feel more connected and less alone, even when there are no physical ears upon which my feelings land in my immediate surroundings. It can also be used for quick reviews, promoting something/someone and publishing just about anything else. I could even see where a TagSpace could hold all of a given community’s insights on a given issue or topic, where it could spark a conversation, be included in a Wiki, or even be used as a polling mechanism.
Once EM evolves to include audio/video, to enable tagging by others and other intelligent backend functionality, the importance of this evolutionary product will be clear to all. As with most game changing innovations, you can’t fully understand it without experiencing it. After you do, it will be great to hear back from you on other ways we might be able to use it or improve it. So go ahead and try it, you might like it!
So the big question is, what do you think of EM and some of the uses I propose here? Does this make sense?
This is the first of my weekly columns we are calling “A View From The Middle” - it is still in its birthing phase, so the format might change a bit. We will be announcing and starting a few other interesting things later this week.
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