Messaging used in emergency

In a world with e-mail and instant messaging, there's no denying that communicating is quicker than ever, and now Purdue is hoping to use text messages to let people know what to do in case of an emergency, reports WLFI.

The university will conduct a voluntary test in September that will look at how text messaging can be used in a time of crisis.

"When you look at this kind of communication there are three parts to it," says IT Director Scott Ksander. "There's who do you send it to? What do you say? And how does it get delivered? The part that we're looking at with this particular effort coming up in September is the last one. How does it get delivered?"

IBM announced it will license parts of Siemens AG's OpenScape software to add unified communications capabilities to its Sametime instant messaging and webconferencing software, reports ComputerWorld.

The companies did not disclose the value of the deal, which was announced at the VoiceCon conference in San Francisco.

Analysts said the move is an effort by IBM to bring Sametime, part of its Lotus Notes messaging and collaboration suite, up to par with Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007, which is slated to ship on 16 October.

The components of a unified communications (UC) infrastructure are contributing significantly to network traffic, according to survey findings from Network General Corporation, reports TMC Net.

The provider of IT service assurance solutions released the findings, showing that the impact of communications applications on network traffic is poised to become even more pronounced.

The ramp-up is already making an impact as nearly 40% of companies have suffered application performance problems due to the convergence of communications applications onto their IT network. Roughly 20% were unsure of whether their performance problems were related to the convergence of communications.