From that point, the employees communicate directly with one another, b ypassing the messaging server altogether. The idea of real-time collaboration also appeals to Steven Prahst, a computer engineer at the NASA Research Center in Cleveland. A group at NASA is studying better ways to work synchronously and asynchronously. Instant messaging and real-time collaboration would offer the instant work environment that asynchronous products don't have, Prahst said. Nevertheless, like many other companies, NASA remains in the exploratory stage.
Users consult the list to determine who is available online.
The products can get more sophisticated, noting for example who is online but unavailable, or that a person is unavailable by phone. What this means is that users communicate directly with one another, without the need of an applications server. Proponents of this architecture note that it doesn't cause bandwidth problems and requires little w ork from network administrators. If the server goes down, the users already registered on the system can continue working. Other products, such as ichat's pager, use a more server-based architecture whereby messages are routed through a server.