Today at work I had a realization. I am addicted to e-mail. Not only that, but I obsess about e-mail almost all day long. It has actually made me less productive. Let me explain.

E-mail is obviously the most pervasive form of business and personal communication today. We can receive e-mails via mobile phone, BlackBerry, PDAs, video game machines or just plain old computers. What’s so bad about that?

Well, all this pervasive computing has led me to expect people to be able to respond faster than humanly possible! If I send an e-mail, I can’t wait for the reply! I often find myself coming up with reasons why people don’t reply within hours or days even!

If I send an e-mail to my boss asking her to review some work I have done and she doesn’t reply within hours, I assume that she is disappointed. If I need an answer to a technical question and can’t move on with my work without an answer, I need the e-mail to come five minutes ago, not whenever the person gets around to writing!

Now, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but you get the point. Old, snail mail communications were expected to be slow. E-mail, a little faster. But wouldn’t it be great if you had some presence information about the person you are trying to communicate with! If only we had some contextual clues in e-mail that would tell us whether the person is available! Perhaps they are out of the office, perhaps at lunch…whatever the situation, we need more information!

Many people use the “Out of Office” reply feature. But doesn’t your computer already know that you are out-of-office? It knows the last time you logged in. It also knows what day it is, what time, etc. Couldn’t the computer make an automatic determination based on where you are as to your status?

In any event, presence information can provide us with the valuable clues to know when we might expect a response to an e-mail. If we know someone is online and has not responded, well then I guess it is safe to assume we are being ignored!

Why technology is designed without you (the user) in mind!

One of my favorite books and a must read for anyone reading this blog is Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. In it he describes our world by examining the things that we find useful or, more likely, not. His discussions about affordances, the gulfs of evaluation and execution, and his steps to effective design are both humorous and critical concepts to understand.

A core concept in his book is that the design of an object should prevent the user from interacting with it in an inappropriate manner. I recently experienced a shortcoming of a device that I would like to share with all of you.

Before the recent birth of my daughter, I purchased a Sony DVD Camcorder. The picture quality is incredible, the audio is Dolby 5.1 Surround, and the size is perfect. I use the camera at every possible opportunity (much to the annoyance of my family). For those of you who don’t know, this camera records information to a small version of a DVD. It is capable of recording data in two different modes, Video and VR. I’m not sure what the difference is, but on this particular occassion I chose to record in Video mode.

All was going well, when I began to receive the small flashing disc on the LCD screen to indicate the disc was nearing capacity. In an effort to record as much possible information to the disc and figuring that the camera would stop before the disc ran out of storage space, I continued to film. Ultimately the disc filled and the camera stopped recording. A new disc and all is well, right? Well, not exactly.

When I attempted to copy the recorded movies to my PC for editing, no information appeared on the disc. The camera could see that the disc was full, but couldn’t access any data on it. I couldn’t play back the disc on my camcorder nor my computer! What was I to do?

I contacted Sony’s technical support and much to my dismay, there was nothing that could be done! My new high-end personal camcorder is not intelligent enough to stop before filling the disc so completely that it cannot finalize the DVD for playback on itself or other machines! Was this failure my own? Should I have heeded the warning of the blinking disc? I think not !

Technology developers have an obligation to design their products in such a way as to allow the intended user to interact intuitively with their devices. I should not have to know all the limitations of my camera, they should be incorporated directly into the design. I could have potentially lost many wonderful memories as a result of this error due to a simple flaw in the design of my camcorder!

Fortunately, I discovered a technique to recover my data using a tool known as IsoBuster. If you have a DVD camcorder and are not comfortable attempting to recover the data yourself, please contact me via my homepage for assitance!

As users, we should demand better of the products we buy rather than simply standing in awe of them. Give preference to those items you feel are well designed even if they cost you slightly more. After all, you will have a much more enjoyable experience!

So many times in the media we here about viruses, security breaches, identity theft and all of the other plagues pervasive computing has brought us! Even our precious BlackBerry devices are becoming the target of attacks! Why are these attacks successful? Well, it isn’t because we don’t have the right equipment and it is not entirely the fault of the software engineers who make buggy code (although they are also to blame). The real problem is US, the users!

Ultimately it is our information we are trying to protect (or in more important cases the information of our valuable customers!) Here’s some pointers to becoming a better and more secure cyber-citizen.
Patches aren’t just for cabbage!

Sure, I’ll be the first to admit it, software companies write awful code. In the rush to be first to market, initial releases of the programs we all need to be productive ship filled with security vulnerabilities. How can you overcome this! You need to routinely patch your systems…ALL OF THEM!

Viruses and attackers often exploit the easiest and most well known vulnerabilities first. Fortunately, these are also the ones that manufacturers correct first. Periodically (and this amount of time will depend on your requirements and time constraints) visit the website of the company who wrote your software and download their latest updates. This should take care of all of the low hanging fruit! Here’s a great link for more info.

AntiVirus Software: digital immunizations for your PC

Imagine you are going on a trip to an exotic jungle nation, rarely visited by people. Without question you would get vaccinations for all the horrible diseases you might catch on your way! Well, if you don’t have AntiVirus software running on your computers you might as well let a malaria infested mosquito hang out on your arm!

AV software is another cornerstone to protecting your data and your system integrity. Without it, your system might become unresponsive or worse, might be infected for months or years before you notice. All the while an attacker might be exfiltrating your personal data or using your machine to mount other attacks.

Raise your hand if you have Antivirus software installed on your system and think you are safe! Come on…I know you’re out there! Most of us have heeded the call to save ourselves by installing AV software, but does that make us safe? Not really.

AntiVirus software needs to be continuously updated! You can pay for these updates, but you don’t need to! A great alternative is the ClamAV antivirus system. Available for free and for both Windows and Linux operating systems, ClamAV is a great way to go for budget minded enterprises and personal users alike!

P@$$w0rd Protection

I know you’ve all heard it before, but poor password generation and protection can result in devastating consequences! Believe me, I sympathize with the fact that in today’s society we have to memorize social security numbers, PIN numbers, account numbers, telephone numbers and that frequently changing passwords or choosing long ones can be difficult at best.

Know, however, that as computing power increases and becomes more available, it is becoming easier and easier for malicious users to guess your password. Change your password as often as you can and be sure it is more complex than your first initial and last name. Here are some great tips on generating a strong password! Also, never give out your password via e-mail or over the phone! You never know who might be listening!

These concepts are relatively simple to introduce, but can provide you with 90 percent of the security you need to be safe in today’s networked world! Know that there are people out there who mean you harm and that you can defend yourself. Recognize also, however, that you are a citizen in the online world and that you have responsibilities as well! Be safe out there!

The following was written in response to a posting at Jabber, Inc.’s Filaments Blog. The original article is available at:

http://blog.jabber.com/filaments/2007/03/05/big-content-see-viacom-v-goolge/

Dave, I agree with you wholeheartedly that providing context to users in the modern networked computing environment is essential. Although the model has been for communication to occur between individuals or groups with previously existing relationships, context cues will become increasingly important when we begin to interact with strangers we have located in search of expertise or to provide real-time information in a fast paced environment.

No offense, but I think you are overselling when you state that “instant messaging IS the desktop”. If that is true, then what the heck are we using the desktop for? There are a variety of other appliances better suited to providing IM and presence information. Mobile devices could very easily fill this role and would likely provide more accurate presence information.

True, the desktop IM client is as strong as it has ever been, but in a world where applications are being pushed into web-based delivery mechanisms I think it unreasonable to believe that IM clients won’t go the same way. This sentiment is echoed in a number of responses to the Om article you quoted above.

After all, the power of what we are discussing here is not in the messaging, but rather in the presence engine. The Jabber presence engine is quite robust, but still gains its presence information from the one (historically unreliable) source, the user. Context information provided by today’s IM applications is no more accurate or reliable than when AIM first hit the market. It is still dominated by “online” or “away” type models with very few clues from the user’s actual environment.

I am confident that this will change in time and that Jabber, Inc. will be at the forefront of this change, but in order to get there we must recognize the limitations of where we are today.

The following was posted in reply to comments on the Elastictime Blog regarding presence technology. The original article is available at:

http://elastictime.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/9/#comments

This post is right on target as regards a variety of problems facing systems that attempt to accurately represent presence to users. Given a casual glance, presence does not appear to be a complex concept. Examined in real-world circumstances, however, the standard “online” vs “away” (OvA) model is surprisingly insufficient. In order to develop an effective means of providing robust representations of presence, it is important to develop definitions we can use to describe the various components.

As you describe in your discussion of unified communications, presence systems often relate our presence relative to a device used to communicate (telephone, pc, etc.). We can infer then, that “Physical” presence, is the physical presence of a user at a known device. Physical presence often implies a locational linkage. For example, if a user is physically present at their PC and that PC is labeled as “work” or “home”, a valid assumption regarding the users location can be made. As you mention, technologies such as GPS may lead to more refined representations of physical presence, into what I call “Geographical” presence. There are many shortcomings to the current state of geopositioning technology in the office environment, but it is a proven concept for mobile computing.

Unfortunately, presence systems have not been designed to assure accurate representations of physical presence. While it is great that, according to AOL, 1/4 of users change their away message daily, the vast majority of users never change their presence status. In fact, most presence applications default to the “online” condition after a user logs in. This has the detrimental effect of changing physical presence into “Device” presence, representing that the client application is ready to communicate, regardless of actual user status.

Inappropriate handling of device presence can lead to mistrust of the system and “Are you there?” type messages regardless of the user’s representation.

Another concept you discuss is the availability of the user. I would contend that availability is a representation of a user’s physical presence combined with their willingness to be interrupted. So if we look at the communication process, the user has to be present to communicate and also willing to communicate. Interruption management is a topic for an entirely separate post, but most users recognize the importance of interruptions to their daily work tasks. Any presence system needs to allow both the interruptor and the interrupted to make value judgements about the importance of interruptions to ensure essential communications are permitted while those of less importance are not initiated.

Finally, you mention the Windows Presence Platform. Standardized protocols to provide presence are alredy in existence. One example is the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (commonly known as Jabber), which has been evaluated and approved by the IETF. XMPP, although originally designed to support non-proprietary instant messaging, has grown to be a leading presence technology.

Many of the concepts here require their own greater discussions at some later time. This discussion, however, is a great place to bring these problems out of the darkness and into the light where they can begin to be solved. I look forward to participating further!

There was a time (most of us will remember) when if we wanted to speak with a friend, relative or business associate, we had to pick up the telephone and call them. If they weren’t there we were either out of luck, or fortunate enough to leave a message on a machine or with someone else. E-mail quickly changed the way we handled correspondence and was used by some for short “conversational” messages. Not until the advent of instant messaging, however, did true synchronous communication over the computer become a reality. But was messaging really the important part?

Not a chance! Sure, instant messaging has expanded our social interactions, connected people across the world, and recently changed the way business organizations interact, but what was the real paradigm shift? The answer: Presence.

At no time in the past or present, with the exception of face to face interactions, did we have the ability to determine the availability of the user with whom we desired to interact. Presence cues provided by instant messaging applications allow us to know whether a user is physically present, available to be interrupted, or too busy to expect a reply.

Sure, today’s presence models are somewhat flawed. Most of us have used an instant messaging application, great or small, where we have either logged in, set our presence to “online”, and walked away without ever changing it. In fact, most applications do this for you! Building confidence in the accuracy of such presence modeling systems is a discussion for another posting; however, it is a topic I address extensively in my research paper available here.

What have been your experiences with presence? How do you feel presence systems in existence today could be improved?

Welcome to the Waite Information Technology Blog and thank you for choosing to begin your new year here. This blog, and its companion website www.waiteit.com will be your source to the latest technologies and concepts in presence, collaboration, and security.

There are many other sources of information available to you on the Internet and elsewhere. I encourage you to seek out these sources of information and will likely provide you a gateway to them. Through collaboration and sharing, we will all be more successful!

Enjoy the Waite IT experience, comment as you desire, and come back again soon!