Collaboration using Instant Messaging tool: A chat log analysis

Although there are some studies on chat log analysis, few focused on collaboration with clear boundary using IM (Instant Messaging) tool. This research captured a full chat log of a distributed collaboration work using popular IM software as the main communication medium. Then quantified analysis on the chat log was done with follow-up interviews to all participants. The comparison between count of messages sent and response intervals were classified by participants. Furthermore, the relation of response interval and message count was tested. The usage of emoticon was also counted and the implication was discussed. It is found that 99.95% of all IM messages contain less than 140 characters. Most of the participants reply within 24 seconds. The response interval has no signification correlation with the number of characters per message. Emoticon is an important part of IM that need further study.