Chat Smarter At Penn State

Chat Smarter at Penn State

John Meier, Science Librarianand

Jimmy Vuccolo, ITS

Chat Widgets

• Customer Service on the Web• What’s a Widget?• How Do I Get a Widget?• Widget Best Practices• Preliminary Research Findings

Customer Service

Customer Service on the Web

Customer Service

Customer Service

Copyright: Jerry Wong / xcode @ flickr.com

Customer Service on the Web

What’s a Widget?

Javascript or Flash code

<object width="160" height="250" ><param name="movie" value="http://widget.meebo.com/mm.swf?QcfqzYHgOH"/><embed src="http://widget.meebo.com/mm.swf?QcfqzYHgOH" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="160" height="250"></embed></object>

For your website

Where Do I Get a Widget?

• Meebo• AIM Wimzi• Plugoo• Digsby

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_chat_widgets.php

Widget Best Practices

• Different types of widgets

• Placement

• Staffing

• Customer Service

Different Types of Widgets

• Single user– Personal– An instance on each

page– Hard to make referrals

• Chat “room”– Public– Single instance– Can have any number

of users or staff online

Placement

• Embedded– Highly Visible– Small appearance

• Linked– Less Visible– Larger in size

• Popup– Less Visible (linked)– Any size– No problems if user

browses in other window

Staffing

• Individual– One person– One chat account

• Shared– Multiple people– One chat account

• Chat “room”– Multiple people– Each with own chat

account

Staffing

• On Desk– On chat while at service

desk– Many interruptions

• On Call– On chat while in office– Limited times

• On… whenever– Most hours online– Inconsistent hours– Don’t forget to be “Away”

Customer Service

• Chat Etiquette– Similar to email etiquette including “think before

you hit SEND”– Choose an appropriate screen name

• “Virtual Reference” Best Practices– Introduce yourself promptly and offer to help– Use shorter messages but stay professional

not ok 2 use abbr. as in txting– Make sure you have contact information if you need

to follow up

Preliminary Research Findings

• Study of widgets on Penn State Library web pages

• Co-Investigators are Helen Smith and Sam Stormont

• IRB Exempt status• 16 questions (most qualitative in nature)– Demographic– Quality of service– Comments

Survey Results

• Who?– Undergrads 67%– Faculty 13%– Graduate 7%– Other 13%

• Where?– University Park 42%– Other campuses 58%

Survey Results

• Who?– Undergrads 67%– Faculty 13%– Graduate 7%– Other 13%

• Where?– University Park 42%– Other campuses 58%

• Why?– Need help looking for a

specific item 60%– Project or paper 27%– For my research 13%

• How did you find it?– Found on my own 40%– Librarian 40%– Other 20%

Survey Results

• Over 90% of responses– Were very satisfied with the information or

materials found– Located what they asked about– Rated the response time of the librarian as very

fast– Described the service as very friendly– Indicated the librarian understood what they

wanted– Likely to use the service again

Comments

I really liked online service because it helped me out from home. I didn’t have

to visit the library.

This is an excellent idea. BRAVO PSU Library.

very helpful service! makes things quicker and easier to find if I am having trouble

on my own.Awesome!

Summary of Chat Widgets

• Customer Service on the Web– Use widgets

• What’s a Widget?– code

• How Do I Get a Widget?– vendors

• Widget Best Practices– Location, location, location

• Preliminary Research Findings– good

Jabber

• Introduction to Jabber

• Jabber @ Penn State

Introduction to Jabber

• What is Jabber?

• Goals of Jabber

What is Jabber?

• Initiative to produce an open source, XML-based instant messaging platform– XMPP Protocol (Extensible Messaging and

Presence Protocol)

Goals of Jabber

• Open - anyone can write their Jabber software using the open specifications that define how Jabber works

• Decentralized - anyone can run their own Jabber server and connect to other servers on the network

Goals of Jabber

• Secure - strong encryption, authentication and identity features help to ensure confidentiality, privacy and prevent spam

• Flexible - the same Jabber transport used or IM can also be used to exchange any data

Jabber @ Penn State

• Humble Beginnings

• New Service

• Your Jabber Identity

• Client Support

Humble Beginnings

New Service

• chat.psu.edu– Beta since 2006– Based on Jabber2d implementation of Jabber– Load balanced on front-end and back-end– Secure TLS/SSL by default– Uses Penn State Access Account authentication

Your Jabber Identity

• Communication between Jabber users is done using their Jabber id– Google: jvuccolo@gmail.com– Penn State: jvuccolo@chat.psu.edu

Client Support

• Popular Jabber Clients– Adium– Pidgin/Gaim– iChat– Trillian Pro

• Configuration instructions can be found in the ITS knowledge base– http://kb.its.psu.edu/psu-all/hd/jabberconfig/

Conference Server

• Allows groups of people to be in the same chat session– conferences.chat.psu.edu– Your handle is your Access Id

chat.psu.edu Futures

• Software change from Jabber2d to eJabberd

• Group/class restrictions capability for the conferences server

Comments! Questions?

Thank you for your time.

• John Meier, Science Librarian, meier@psu.eduAIM/Meebo/Gtalk/Twitter/etc: johnmeier1

• Jimmy Vuccolo, ITS, jvuccolo@psu.edu