Chats & Instant Messaging

You may have heard of "chatting" or "instant messaging" on the Internet. Having a chat on the web takes one of two forms. There are "chat rooms" available that you can participate in. Chat rooms are typically centered on a theme. In agriculture, the theme may be marketing or production. Chatters watch the chat onscreen and may comment at their discretion. The major difference between a chat room and a discussion group is that the chat occurs in real time whereas the discussion group allows for so called "asynchronous communication". In other words, you can post your message whenever you like and people can read and respond later.

Chat rooms may be useful for gaining information from many different people about a specific topic. However, because individuals are anonymous, be sure to follow up and check facts before making decisions based on information gathered in a chat room. There aren't many agriculture-specific chats available, but some searching may uncover one that fits your special farm business interests.

To join a chat, almost all services will ask you to provide a name, which may be anything you choose. Others may ask you to register with them, but that's almost always free. You probably won't need any special software other than your web browser. However, some chat rooms may use certain features that require you to download special software. You'll probably be okay doing that, but be sure that you trust the chat host. You don't want to download any harmful programs.

The second form of chatting is an instant message, or IM. Using special software, you can send a note that will immediately pop up on the recipient's screen. Instant messages are usually used for very brief conversations and best suited to one-on-one or very small group interaction. Instant messages may be very useful for internal communication. If you need to ask a quick question of someone at a different computer, you can send an IM and get a response very quickly. Good uses of IMs may include the following.

• Seeing if someone is at their desk so you can talk with them
• Getting an answer to a simple question
• Letting someone know they have a package

Because they show up on the screen immediately, IMs are intrusive so be sure to use them with caution.

To send and receive IMs, you and the recipient will need to have the same software. Popular products such as those shown below are available for free download.

• MSN Messenger – http://messenger.msn.com
• America On-line's Instant Messenger (AIM) – http://www.aim.com
• Yahoo! Messenger – http://messenger.yahoo.com
• icq – http://www.icq.com
• Google Talk – http://www.google.com/talk

Like many Internet applications, the use of instant messaging software may present some important security issues. Because files can be shared via most IM packages, viruses and other damaging files can be transmitted easily. So be careful about accepting files. For a more thorough discussion on this topic and other security issues related to IM software, visit http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1657.