Meebo chat rooms

Today I finally got to log into the meebo chat room for our class at: http://www.meebo.com/room/ils599/. My personal experience of Meebo was alright, like other classmates I had issues trying to login without the password, and I wasn’t able to see any comments because the chat log appeared blank; I also missed a chance to talk with a classmate because I was logged in but talking with a reference librarian through IM. Later I had more success logging in and I was able to read all the past comments of classmates, I have to admit I was a bit confused with all the comments, and trying to figure out which comments were with which conversation. I was a bit confused because I created a Meebo account, with the nickname of mngorman, but had 2 guest ids, so I didn’t know if I was logged in as a guest AND a member, or if I was still just a guest. I left a few questions posted hoping someone might answer them in between now and tomorrow afternoon (which is the next time I’ll be able to check). I think that as I get to explore and use it more I would become more comfortable with the Meebo chat room.

In general, I do appreciate the possibilities of using Meebo chat rooms in libraries. I could see myself using a Meebo chat room in a professional setting (once I become more used to seeing such a large chat room log). It can be a good way for the spread of information on a small scale, allowing users to stop by when they can, but as I saw in some of my classmates postings a lot of small messages were sent to try to establish a meeting time where multiple users could chat together. The larger the group chatting the more confusing it could be to follow the different topics, but a small group of users with a focus, such as a specific topic or group project to work on could keep others updated on progress. Libraries can and do use Meebo for answering reference questions, but they could also host chat rooms for special interest groups; if there is a high population of knitters they could chat within this space, give tips, and even exchange patterns online-if they can’t physically meet. I have attempted to use the chat service in Vista without much success, probably because classmates have not anticipated a chat invitation or might have been logged into the system but not actually there. In my personal life, I use Digsby to manage 3 IM identities, I find it easy to use and manage, but most of my conversing is done on a 1 on 1 basis and not a chat room.