Does synch work when busy?

[thetechnaddict]

I understand: this is P2P you can only synch when peers are online together.... but does it still work if you are online and busy?

I would think that busy means "I'm online but don' t bug me right now" - so yes it should sync.

Sorry to have to ask the question but users expect me to know not ask them!

[Anna Evpak]

Hello,

Collanos Workplace application makes all on line space members questioning on new information on each start up in on line mode. If someone have something new downloading process starts immediately regardless of whether your status is busy or online. Statuses brings informative load for space members. Functionally only status offline and pending are important - they mean that member with such status cannont receive information from you on the current moment.

[thetechnaddict]

Thanks Anna - that's great news - it means that the files can still synch up and I can be occupied with other things without others wondering why I am not responding to messages.

One improvement for future consideration... I would like to work with one project group in one workspace (status=online) and be busy to people in other workspaces....

Its great to find a useful tool

[Anna Evpak]

Hello,

Nice to hear good words about our product, thanks. As for option about different statuses on different spaces - I will redirect this request to our Bussines Analysis department for feather reviewing.

[Franco Dal Molin]

To apply different presence states in different workspaces is a bit tricky, both technically and conceptually. Let me explain: We will soon add a contact management "layer" to the product, which means that you will be able to manage all your contacts, no matter if they are members in workspaces or not. Similar to an address book or social network, you will basically maintain and manage your "connections" or "friends". And similar to Skype and other popular IM systems, the WHOLE contacts list will show the online presence of the contacts.

Now let's assume one of your contacts is "Joe" and he is a member in workspaces "A" and "B". You want to show your presence in workspace A as being busy, but online in B. What online state of yours should Joe see? Online or Busy? Which setting should be stronger, A, B or the basic contact list? Would you want to apply compex rules, priorities and "presence calculators"? It is not only tricky, but just too confusing...

There are two possibilities:

1. Show your online presence on a per-user basis (independently of workspace membership). Still.... is this a useful and manageable thing? Let's assume you have 300 contacts in your list, and you have "set" 75 users to see you as "busy". Is this manageable? Will you not forget to reset it? etc.


2. Instead of "faking" the presence state, we would rather improve the use of explicit busy messages. How about telling everybody "Please do not disturb, I am in meetings until 3 PM". Or share such messages on a per space basis, e.g. in space A: "I will work again in this space from Thursday on. Just no time before". etc.

On a side note, compare the issue with other channels like email, phone, even physical office. It is a matter of communicating to others very clearly what you want and your availability. Then, based on common sense, fairness, consideration and politeness, your contacts should judge themselves if, how, or when to contact you. Some people just don't reply to the phone anymore, by checking who is calling. The the caller is just not sending the Caller ID anymore, and calling anonymously. Then the receiver is stepping up and simply not picking up ANY anonymous calls anymore etc. Such escalations are ridiculous.

Any thoughts? Do you think the options 1. and/or 2. outlined above are useful and needed? Both?