How about combining the features of Wiki with Jabber, the open source Instant Messaging service?

Here are some stories:

1. I define a group in the Main web that lists all the TWiki users who are in the Widget service support team. Those users who are online now are highlighted. I click to the user's personal page and can initiate an IM session from there.
2. I can see if the previous editor of a topic is online - and can just IM to comment on the page, ask questions, etc.
3. I am in an IM session and the conversation gets interesting - I would like to record it for later on...I can click to dump the IM text and user IDs to a wiki topic for clean up.

-- SteveRoe - 20 Jul 2001

Up to a couple weeks ago, this seemed like as good an idea as a bunch of others - things that could, but should they, be incorporated in TWiki. BUT, after two weeks of seeing TWiki in "action" as a collaboration and all-purpose intranet engine in an office of about 12, IF Jabber or whatever IM solution was reliable and stable, it could be great when you want to tie the ease and convenience of TWiki - essentially, here it's a much better replacement for in-office email - with IMMEDIACY. IOW, almost everyone who tried TWiki seemed to get it, like it, make the email clutter connection. But TWiki lacks the, at least fealing of, immediacy. Even with a hyperactive WebNotify setting, it isn't the same - you're posting to the Web; when is someone gonna come along and look? But with integrated IM - is there, could there be included, could there be separately, a simple "ding" alert as well? - the immediacy is better than email. You could pop up an alert, or ding, the person to tell 'em to look.

-- MikeMannix - 16 Dec 2001

Or just put an e-mail link in the template.
With the link, populate the subject with the WikiTopic and the body with a link to the wiki page.

The immediacy can by gained by using your standard e-mail for the alert.
Once you finish editing a page, click the link on the page. Then click send.

-- SocinianClarke - 17 Dec 2001

Hmm... I'm thinking about InstantNotification.

-- JoachimDurchholz - 18 Dec 2001

Joachim's InstantNotification, as described, is in a related, but different, area of ChangesProject. But the name is good in general - TWiki InstantNotification! It really gets to the core of the Changes issue - letting people know when to look at what.

• With author's permission, could we repurpose InstantNotification as the gateway topic for this whole thread?

[ ] Instant Messaging: In Steve Roe's initial idea notes for this topic - JabberWiki - the idea of quick real-time conversations, plus easy optional text dump, is great. IM has ultimate immediacy, but it also allows (and the precedent's accepted, even if you can see the other person) of setting it to off/DND or whatever, so you maintain the buffer of email that's usually an improvement over picking up the phone/dropping by chat approach to InstantNotification.

[ ] A simple ding: A Check TWiki pop-up alert, ideally on a per user basis, is a separate, standalone or complementary idea. There are various options for the funtionality of the alert itself.

[ ] Manual email alert: Socinian's email link is quick, easy and ready to go, and would be effective in most situations - people keep up with their email. My one concern, based on new and limited, but already revealing, observation of a bunch of people first interacting with a new TWiki-as-all-purpose-intranet-platform, is that some are strongly attached to email - the tendency to reply in email, even to an email alert, is definitely hard to overcome. For others, an email alert as a link to an easier way to keep up ping-ponging email discussions - declutter email - is a natural. (This leads to another Changes area, appending email to TWiki.) So, an easy non-email InstantNotification - even if it only worked over a LAN (ie: while in office) or equivalent internally networked situation - may have a distinct role, with or without a built-in group email function.

Underlying all of this is a need for better definition of TWiki target groups or deployment situations. Corporate intranet once again seems too broad to be useful in focusing feature ideas. Perhaps a few typical CollaborationSituations could be considered for a start.

-- MikeMannix - 27 Dec 2001

At Unisys I was asked to add a ChangeNotify system whereby any user could add their WikiName to the ChangNotify field on any page. When that page was modified an email was sent to any users listed in the ChangeNotify list... Tha way people only get instant notification on things they want... - it meant that email was used for transient informational notes, and the twiki for more permanent discussions.

-- SvenDowideit - 06 Jan 2002

One way to make TWiki more immediate, a la Jabber, is to download an RSS reader, e.g. FeedReader or the slicker looking Google:Newzcrawler, and use TWikiSyndication - you'll get near-instant notification of changes to selected TWiki webs, making it much easier to have rapid discussions. As long as you adjust the lock time to 5 or 10 minutes, that is.

See also PhpWiki:BrainstormCommunication where this is being discussed.

-- RichardDonkin - 23 Feb 2002

It looks as if RossMayfield ran with the idea of adding chat to a weblog plus wiki with Social Text, a commercial product, which he describes as "social software solutions," and which recently got some play in the New York Times Business Section. So, it was a good idea that SteveRoe had.

-- JonathanSmith - 19 May 2003