Chatrooms: Your route to business success (LOL?)

Online chatrooms don't have a great image right now. If the UK press and Countdown Queen Carol Vorderman are to be believed, paedophile monsters lurk in every one of them, disguised and offering young children pocketfuls of cyber candy.

In response to public outcry, the UK government launched its Chat Wise report last month. It advises adults to keep an eye on their child's chat activities and recommends ISPs monitor what goes on in these virtual hubs.

Sounds sensible, but let's not lose sight of the other side to the chatroom debate - what they mean to businesses.

In the mid 1990s chat software, together with its younger cousin instant message (IM), quickly became one of the internet's most popular tools because they allowed people to talk in near real-time either within a group or on a one-to-one basis. It was a progression from internet bulletin boards allowing users to post messages for one another on highly specialised topics.

There are two main types of internet-based chat tools.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) technology, first pioneered in Finland in 1988, uses a text-based communication protocol on a client/server network. The server computer connected to the internet can host multiple IRC connections simultaneously. Users connect to this server with specialised software that resides on their computer.

Web-based chat software consists of a web browser-enabled client software component and a server software component. The client software can be a browser plug-in, a Java applet, or a plain HTML page. Most web-based email services now offer downloadable chat/IM software and many ISPs even host specific public chat rooms on different topics. Chat software has traditionally been freely available or bundled together with other stand-alone applications such as email.

Companies were quick to realise the advantages of live conversation across the net. They originally began using chat software for internal communication or as a conference facility between different locations. Today, many companies are adding chat to their websites to beef up their ecommerce activities, either to help them with their customer service enquiries or to create an online community.

Charles Tyrwhitt is an online retailer that recently added chat to its website to improve customer service. Gary Robinson, the company's web marketing manager, said that customers prefer having the option.

"The phone-me button already implemented on our site didn't fully cater to home users as they would have to disconnect from the site to use the phone line. Also, not all customers want to pick up the phone - some prefer a more anonymous point of contact," he said.

Peter Skinner, director of international relations for Facetime, a chat software company, said the decision to install chat online depends largely on the need for customers to engage in private chats outside a site's public arena. "Many companies decide to give customers real-time direct interaction with their business or let them talk to one another," he said.

But chatting is not just about real-time interaction. Another factor to consider is whether it is worth archiving chat logs. This may be useful when a chat session consists of an interview with an expert or when there is a need to distribute the content of a chat to interested parties who could not attend the event.

Facetime's Skinner added: "Archiving chat allows companies to keep records which then can be used for promotional purposes after the session is over."

But be careful. IT departments worrying about privacy issues must work to the same legal guidelines that apply to the use of phone call records.

And live communication across the internet has other risks. Recently, hundreds of pages of an ICQ Instant Messaging conversation were posted on the internet. These logs were supposedly a record of a private conversation between a troubled US dot-com's CEO and a friend.

Pundits say this is just one cautionary tale. Gunter Ollman, consultant at Internet Security Systems, reckons many chat tools have known vulnerabilities and can easily be exploited remotely.

He said: "Because an IM/chat client opens a private unencrypted pathway between two computers, it is very easy to eavesdrop on a conversation. The main reason for this is that client software often uses listening ports which allow attackers to run or install files as they wish."

He added that IT departments should advise employees not to use external chat tools over corporate networks as they can accidentally exchange virus-infected files or offensive material which could prove costly to the business.

But there are ways to use chat software securely. Ollie Whitehouse, security architect manager at @stake consultancy, says specially designed corporate chat software allows businesses to set up internal private internet location servers (ILS) which cannot be accessed from the outside. "Additionally, there are add-ons developed by third parties that allow applications such as ICQ and AOL's Instant Messenger to send encrypted messages between parties," he said.

All this talk of the best way to incorporate chat software just goes to show it is undeniably attractive to companies wanting to engage in almost-live communication across the web. It just seems that IT directors wanting to reap the benefits of secure chatting will yet again end up chanting a very familiar mantra: must train end users, must train end users, must train...