Using IM to Broadcast Personal Information
Posted on June 13th, 2005
"Never IM in This Town Again!" is an interesting article from Wired about how in certain Hollywood circles people put notices about their freelance availability in the away message of their IM client.
Instead of displaying simple "away from my computer" messages, Hollywood buddy lists now overflow with come-ons, from "need work" to "wrapping up shoot." Producers hiring for a new production can tell at a glance who's available now, who's not and who might be free in the near future.
"Ninety percent of my work is given to me through a pop-up (chat window) on my desktop," said Simon Foster, 32, a freelance production coordinator living in Santa Monica, California.
I think this use of IM is significant in two ways. One, it involves a form of information broadcast that is the opposite of how IM is normally used. Normally IM is one-to-one, or maybe one-to-small-group. If "many" refers to everyone on your buddy list and you wanted to do a one-to-many broadcast, you'd probably just send an email instead. But that's exactly what this new use is about: one-to-many inside a medium that is otherwise better suited to one-to-one.
It's also an example of publish-subscribe. The subscription already exists through the buddy relationship, and the away message is being extended to publish personal information deliberately rather than just operational information automatically.
The other significance of this use of IM is that it's not conversation based. It hopefully leads to conversations about job leads, but they are secondary.