Chat Smarter at Penn State
John Meier, Science Librarian
and
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 For your website
<object width=\"160\" height=\"250\"
><param name=\"movie\"
value=\"http://widget.meebo.co
m/mm.swf?QcfqzYHgOH\"/><em
bed
src=\"http://widget.meebo.com/
mm.swf?QcfqzYHgOH\"
type=\"application/x-shockwave-
flash\" width=\"160\"
height=\"250\"></embed></objec
t>

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? • Why?
– Undergrads 67% – Need help looking for a
– Faculty 13% specific item 60%
– Graduate 7% – Project or paper 27%
– Other 13% – For my research 13%
• Where? • How did you find it?
– University Park 42% – Found on my own 40%
– Other campuses 58% – 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 This is an excellent idea.
from home. I didn’t have BRAVO PSU Library.
to visit the library.
very helpful service! makes
things quicker and easier to
find if I am having trouble Awesome!
on my own.

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.edu
AIM/Meebo/Gtalk/Twitter/etc: johnmeier1
• Jimmy Vuccolo, ITS, jvuccolo@psu.edu