my presentation notes

Here are my presentation notes on Windows Live Messenger.

Windows Live Messenger is the newest version of the MSN messenger programs. MSN messenger has changed and developed immensely over time and today there are hundreds of features available. It is the leading chat program however; there are a number of other versions including ICQ, web messenger, Mac messenger, and e-messenger, which is now called e-buddy. The attraction to web and e-messenger is that you don’t have to install the programs on your computer, and can access them via the web. E-messenger’s attraction was that you could add people using yahoo and not just hotmail users. As you can see e-buddy now has options tailored to different networks. Now, however, Windows Live Messenger allows you to add hotmail, gmail, Yahoo and Bigpond users as well. The only disadvantages are that you do have to install it onto your computer and it doesn’t run on Macs.

Most people have heard of MSN messenger, if not Windows Live Messenger itself. So I decided to do a survey on people who use Windows Live Messenger and find out how often they use it, why they use it and what is the best feature or thing about it. I surveyed 12 people, 10 were uni students and 2 were school students. Out of the 12 participants, 10 use Windows Live Messenger everyday and the other 2 use it once or twice a week. It can be addictive, mainly because you’re interacting with real people so there’s always something new to talk about and to share with other people. Some answers for why they use Windows Live Messenger were to chat, which was the most popular but in particular chatting with multiple friends at a time; to keep in touch with friends; to communicate with people all around the world; to share files; because they thought it would be cool and it’s new; it’s free; and to play games.

There were a variety of answers to what’s the best thing about Windows Live Messenger. These included appearing offline without actually being offline, the ability to transfer files or photos, the option to reply anytime and sending offline messages, group chat, because it’s free, it’s private-you talk to who you add, chatting real time with friends and family around the world, emoticons, avatars or display pictures and the option to upload your own, video call, design of the program- layout, visuals, and because it’s established and most people use it.

Through conducting this survey, I realised that there are a lot of options and features that people don’t know about and also take for granted. Windows Live Messenger is well designed and the possibilities of interacting with people all around the world are amazing. For one, I conducted my survey primarily through Windows Live Messenger, the medium itself and could therefore reach people in other states easily to get a broader perspective.

When you open the program, this window pops up, where you enter your email address and password. It then moves to this window where you can see all your contacts. You can put them in groups eg. Family, uni and you can see who is online and offline. By double clicking on a contact’s name, you open up the conversation window. On the right, there’s the other person’s display picture and your display picture, which you can hide and change. The bottom panel is where you type your message and the one above it shows all the messages already sent and received. These little faces down here are where you’ll find emoticons, winks-animated clips, nudge-which shakes the other person’s window, send a voice recording, and you can edit the colour and font of your text and change the background image. There are dynamic backgrounds available, which have self-moving or interactive elements.

The icons up the top allow you to invite someone to this conversation, share files, start or stop a video call, call a contact, see activities, games and block this contact. With Windows Live Messenger you can also send messages via sms and have a personal status message in addition to your name. There’s also Windows Live Spaces, which is based on the myspace concept but it’s not as developed. You can also search for contacts and things on the web through the program.

When you download Windows Live Messenger, I think there is an option to receive emails that inform you of the latest features and provide simple steps to show you how to use them. For example, this is an email I received and it’s talking about a new feature, making PC-to-PC voice calls. It provides a screenshot or visual and step-by-step instructions on how to perform that task so that the user can read about it but also know how to access that function. The email also lists other new features that you can find out more about if you wish. It’s a good way of letting users know what they can do and also to get more people to use it.

There are so many advantages and features in Windows Live Messenger. The conversations are instant and in real-time. You can customise it; send offline messages which is a new feature where the person you’re sending the message to doesn’t have to be online at that time and they receive the message next time they log on; it’s an easy way to keep in touch with people all around the world; you can chat to more than one person at a time; you have the option of simply typing messages or using a web cam and microphone; you can play games with other users; send & receive files instantly; use and change your display picture; and group chat.

Now there’s even a dual mode cordless phone that works with Windows Live Messenger, which you use to call any of your contacts. It works in the same way as the application on your computer, where you can see who’s online and get notification of emails.

You can also set up a sharing folder with a friend, where you drop in photos etc and you can see it even when one of you is offline. There are a number of games you can play. These include; supreme air combat, battleships extreme, jigsaw too, tic tac toe, sudoku too, hexic, checkers, solitaire showdown, bejeweled, minesweeper flags, backgammon, 7 hand poker, reversi, quarto, adopt your own pet and brain battle.

As you can see there are a lot of possibilities available through Windows Live Messenger. It combines elements of all the best free software such as skype, hello, and e-buddy, that allows you to chat, send photos, use a web cam and talk with a microphone. It’s a really good communication tool but beware, it is really addictive and you can find yourself on there for hours.