Communication Technologies

"Our greatest fear is that the Internet will become a vehicle of free distribution of information." By Ken Wasch, President of the Software Publishers' Association, 5 September 1995

The use of communication technology is ever-present in modern-day public relations practice, and often there’s no choice but to adopt the most up-to-date communication technology.

Carol Kinsey Goman discusses in her article, “Communicating for a New Age,” that the younger generation is moving from the “passive” or “pushing” communications to the “active” or “pulling” communications. Goman writes, "technology has generated a shift in communications to collaborations.” Younger generations are used to using technology and being involved; therefore, communication within the workplace also needs to be updated to include more technological means of communication. You can fully read Goman’s article at the following link: http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management/4074603-1.html

There are many forms of communication we use today. The uses of the phone, fax, and e-mail are in the entire rise. The question is which the best to use is, and what the most effective way to use it is.The use of e-mail today is becoming more and more effective form of communication. We get numerous numbers of e-mails a day and we respond only to a few; this show how un-effective this form of communication is. A company may have to use e-mail if they are spread over a large geographic area as it is the easiest way of communication. The use of phone conference is also a very popular today. Many companies have corporate meeting; given the rising cost of travel; face to face is not always accessible. In order to communicate as a group the use of phone conference is very helpful. The use of video conference is also on the rise, as this helps to know who you are speaking to. For example, even the smallest and most traditional businesses require the Web sites that their customers expect, and the submission of a simple news release to a mass medium’s electronic newsroom must satisfy the technological requirements of that medium. Organizations must continually monitor blogs, recognizing that harmful rumors can spread worldwide in minutes. The contemporary practice of public relations requires practitioners to immediately respond to emerging issues and crisis situations via Web sites, blogs and other new media. Today, the choice of communication channels is dictated by technology: a practitioner must seriously consider which message forms and channels would be best for specific publics. Often, new technological forms and channels, such as electronic pitching, podcasting and blogging, prevail over traditional news releases and media kits.

But communication is still a significant challenge. Consider you working for a company, in a single day, you probably send and receive email, make phone calls from your desktop and mobile telephones, and check messages in multiple mailboxes. You might participate in an audio conference call, use instant messaging and schedule meetings with your calendaring application. By this we can say that communication technologies play a important role in the organizations which may be large or small.

Microsoft has come up with its new technologies to communicate within the company. In the coming years, unified communications technologies will eliminate the barriers between the communications modes—email, voice, Web conferencing and more—that we use every day. They will enable us to close the gap between the devices we use to contact people when we need information and the applications and business processes where we use that information. The impact on productivity, creativity and collaboration will be profound.

With unified communications, you will be able to tell at a glance if the person you need to talk to is in the office and available to take your call. When you are on the phone, you’ll be able to move from a two-person conversation to a conference call with a click of the mouse, or switch to a video conference that includes colleagues and partners from around the world. Unified communications solutions will have the intelligence to know who is allowed to interrupt you when you are busy and automatically route phone calls, emails and instant messages to the right device when you leave the office. You’ll also be able to listen to your email or read your phone messages.

Unified communications will reduce complexity on the backend, too. Today, IT struggles to operate an unwieldy mix of disconnected systems: a PBX system for phone calls, a messaging system for voice mail, a solution for email, a system for instant messaging and more. According to one recent survey, a typical company has deployed six types of communications devices and runs five different communications software systems.

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. The most sophisticated satellite has no conscience. The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end, the communicator is confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

Information from: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2006/06-26unifiedcomm.mspx

When I was doing my internship in EMC² as a Human Resource, I had to communicate with the manager of that respective team to know the details of that position. As EMC² is a MNC, I had to speak to managers who used to work in different parts of the globe; I would communicate with the help of email, phone conference, WEBX Calls & video Conferencing. Some times the interviews would happen with the help of phone call & video conferencing. So communication technologies play a vital role in the organizations.