Custom Map

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Custom Map
Messaging Presence for LearnersThe evolution
of MSGMarc Eisenstadt, Chris Denham, Alex
LittleKnowledge Media InstituteThe Open
UniversityMarch 2007
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Instant Messaging Presence Why?

• Fastest-growing application gt600M users!
• A Messaging (chat) fast, easy, ephemeral
• B Presence the key enabler!
• Shows who is online right now
• Like personal radar alert, no need to trawl
  for info

A
B
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Relevance to Learning

• This is Social Software (connecting a
  distributed community)
• Fosters impromptu/informal interactions
• Well-known feel-good factor (seeing whos
  around)
• Encourages peer-group problem-solving
• Avoids telephone tag and email tag ( spam)

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BuddySpace Web2.0 MSG

• BuddySpace fancy IM maps (great, but too
  difficult)
• MSG much simpler (no download, no installation,
  no fancy options)
• Automatic contact list (from LDAP or group
  administrator)
• Optional maps

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Click-to-launch no download (runs in a web
browser window)
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Click-to-chat
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Custom Map Launcher
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Custom Map

• Presence at a glance
• All dots 1-click-to-chat
• Any image XML file with simple X,Y coordinates
• Upload by group administrator

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World Map launcher
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Google Maps MSG clusters
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Google Maps Dynamic re-clustering
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Google Maps All map features
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Google Maps Click-to-chat
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Instant notification
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Selective views
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Presence everywhere Postings annotated with
live status,facilitating click-to-chat
now(any user can opt out of this)
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Desktop notification widget lights up when new
messages appear
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Both ELeGI-i and ELeGI-f! MSG status
persistently displayed in the IWTGA banner.
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When any authorized user logs in to the IWTGA
portal they will automatically be logged in to
MSG too.
Clicking on green bullet will open MSG Client in
a new window
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Note the ! status alert change
When any authorized user logon into IWTGA portal
it will automatically logged into MSG too.
Click on green bullet will open MSG Client in a
new window
Chatting with Chris
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MSG So What?

• Dis-aggregation of innards into cleaner/re-usable
  components
• Service Oriented Architecture facilitates
  integration
• Open source fosters active developer community
  (e.g. Moodle integration)
• Fosters impromptu/informal interactions in
  context
• Well-known feel-good factor (seeing whos
  around)
• Encourages peer-group problem-solving
• Avoids telephone tag and email tag ( spam)
• Spans both formal and informal branches of ELeGI

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Acknowledgements
MSG client server systems Chris Denham Moodle
integration and MSG Presence Maps Alex
Little BuddySpace.org (original concepts and
implementation) Jiri Komzak, Martin
Dzbor Graphics and site Peter Devine, Harriett
Cornish, Damian Dadswell Project principal
investigator Marc Eisenstadt MSG is partly
supported by the European Community under the
Information Society Technologies (IST) programme
of the 6th Framework Programme for RTD - project
ELeGI, contract IST-002205. This software and its
documentation do not represent the opinion of the
European Community, and the European Community is
not responsible for any use that might be made of
the data and tools appearing herein. MSG Software
is available at http//msg.open.ac.uk We also
gratefully acknowledge support from the William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation for enabling us to
extend MSG to become part of the larger Open
Content Initiative OpenLearn project at the Open
University (http//www.open.ac.uk/openlearn)
http//msg.open.ac.uk