Instant messaging a mixed blessing

One in five Americans who use instant-messaging programs do so at work, and most consider it a mixed blessing that can encourage gossip or add stress, a new survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds.

Overall, the experience is positive: 11 percent of the at-work instant messengers consider the tool essential. Two-thirds consider IM mostly positive, but a mixed blessing. Half say it helps them save time, and 40 percent credit it for improving teamwork.

But 32 percent say it encourages gossip, 29 percent consider it a distraction and 11 percent complain it’s stress-inducing.

Pew researchers also found that a quarter of flash message users employ IM more frequently than e-mail — it’s 42 percent among those ages 18 to 27. Fifteen percent have done so wirelessly — through a cell phone or laptop.

For MBA students, it’s about connections

Mindful that a key to business is being able to access people and information at all times, University of Maryland’s business school is giving Blackberry wireless devices to all full-time MBA students this fall.

With the handheld Blackberry, offered through Nextel Communications Inc., students will be able to access e-mail, use the Internet, check calendars and use the equipment’s walkie-talkie function. Students can add cell service for a fee.

In the future, the business school plans to allow students to use the devices to get course assignments, access their grades and obtain other school information.

Spam doesn’t go over well Down Under

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has come under fire for bankrolling a pre-election spam campaign carried out by a company run by his son.

Howard’s government recently outlawed spam but exempted political parties, charities and religious organizations. Still, the opposition Labor Party condemned the e-mail campaign.

Howard’s electronic messages also enraged an anti-spam activist who is seeking his legislative seat. “It doesn’t matter what the content is,” Troy Rollo said. “It’s using other people’s resources, and it’s clogging up the Internet.”