Communication Technologies

According the article, How About an E-mail On That? , the author Bruno is talking about 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 offset 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.

There are still some communication technologies I would like to talk as the following.

blog
There are more and more businesses have embraced the trendy communication medium-Blog, such as Dell, Microsoft, and Apple. Lenn Pryor, Microsoft's director of platform evangelism acknowledged “Blogging is a way to scale our ability to communicate with customers in an open and honest way." However, I think that blogging is very different from the kinds of communication activities that employees routinely engage in, like speaking at conferences. Independent bloggers may not have to think before they post, but corporate bloggers do since anything that goes up on the Internet is immediately available to a worldwide audience of billions.

Web Conferencing
By using Web conferencing, companies will be able to create communities in which users can share audio, video and photos, as well as post blogs, podcasts and profiles. Cisco announced it would spend $3.2 billion in cash to acquire WebEx, the No. 1 Web conferencing company.

Email
Email is a very convenient method to communicate with people in a whole entity.
Different with traditional mail, it is immediately. Some people think that since the appearance of instant message, e-mail will become a fad. However, in my experience, I still feel e-mail is the best way to communicate with your suppliers and customers.