Web-based Communication

An interesting question about communications is how much of the communications or references to the communications do we want to store / keep in Tessitura or elsewhere.  We keep all of the order information and Contribution Acknowledgement information in Tessitura already.  Do we want to be able to in some way to lookup all of the emails from a customer? Maybe… Do we want to be able to look up tweets that a customer has made about our organization?  Maybe…  Do we keep all that information in Tessitura? Likely Not… Do we keep a reference to this in Tessitura? Maybe…  If so how?

Communication methods are evolving faster than I can remember.   This applies to all forms of communication, not just web-based communication.   So answering Andrew's first two questions is challenging.   The third question however, is key.   We may not know much about the particular commnucations methods we will be using 2-5 years from now.   We DO however have a pretty good sense of the kind of information we need to know about any particular communication method even if we don't know what that communication method will be.   Here is the start of a list:

1.  Address -- whether it is a phone number, an IM address, an SMS address, a facebook or twitter id, there is some block of information that defines the path to that contact.

2.  Length -- what is the size limit of the communication method -- 140/160 character, 10 MB, 4 minutes, etc.

2.  Is it text only?   Graphical?   Multimedia (MIME)?

3.  Is it live -- direct, real-time?  Or created-stored-forwarded-delivered?

4.  What are the hours it is available -- for instance, we might only want to telemarket someone between 9AM and 9PM, whereas we might use the same telephone number for SMS messages 24x7.

5.  Is it point-to-point or group based (like a chat), or is it social-based -- where it is sent to someone in particular but then shared with their entire social network.

6.  Is it secure, point-to-point but not secure, or public?

7.  Is it location-based -- either triggered by the user reaching or arriving at a certain location, or tied to a particular location?

8.  Is it one-way, or can it be replied to?  What is the reply address.   For instance, email and SMS are both examples of methods that can be replied to via a particular reply address.

9.  Can it be customer-initiated, or do we initiate the communication and the customer also may or may not be able to reply (see #8).

I am sure I will think of other important details, and I know others will have good thoughts.  The important thing is if we are able to define the above pieces of information for any communication method, we can reasonably expect to be able to accommodate any communication method that develops in teh future.

An interesting question about communications is how much of the communications or references to the communications do we want to store / keep in Tessitura or elsewhere.  We keep all of the order information and Contribution Acknowledgement information in Tessitura already.  Do we want to be able to in some way to lookup all of the emails from a customer? Maybe… Do we want to be able to look up tweets that a customer has made about our organization?  Maybe…  Do we keep all that information in Tessitura? Likely Not… Do we keep a reference to this in Tessitura? Maybe…  If so how?

Communication methods are evolving faster than I can remember.   This applies to all forms of communication, not just web-based communication.   So answering Andrew's first two questions is challenging.   The third question however, is key.   We may not know much about the particular commnucations methods we will be using 2-5 years from now.   We DO however have a pretty good sense of the kind of information we need to know about any particular communication method even if we don't know what that communication method will be.   Here is the start of a list:

1.  Address -- whether it is a phone number, an IM address, an SMS address, a facebook or twitter id, there is some block of information that defines the path to that contact.

2.  Length -- what is the size limit of the communication method -- 140/160 character, 10 MB, 4 minutes, etc.

2.  Is it text only?   Graphical?   Multimedia (MIME)?

3.  Is it live -- direct, real-time?  Or created-stored-forwarded-delivered?

4.  What are the hours it is available -- for instance, we might only want to telemarket someone between 9AM and 9PM, whereas we might use the same telephone number for SMS messages 24x7.

5.  Is it point-to-point or group based (like a chat), or is it social-based -- where it is sent to someone in particular but then shared with their entire social network.

6.  Is it secure, point-to-point but not secure, or public?

7.  Is it location-based -- either triggered by the user reaching or arriving at a certain location, or tied to a particular location?

8.  Is it one-way, or can it be replied to?  What is the reply address.   For instance, email and SMS are both examples of methods that can be replied to via a particular reply address.

9.  Can it be customer-initiated, or do we initiate the communication and the customer also may or may not be able to reply (see #8).

I am sure I will think of other important details, and I know others will have good thoughts.  The important thing is if we are able to define the above pieces of information for any communication method, we can reasonably expect to be able to accommodate any communication method that develops in teh future.