Users' choice of channel in person-to-person communication

A field study of person-to-person communication service choice in an administrative work setting has been conducted. Five persons in a distributed organisation were provided a set of new communication services for point-to-point real time communication: audio conferencing, video conferencing, multimedia conferencing, and avatar-telephone, in addition to their 'old' services including e-mail and ordinary telephone. All communication services were equally accessible on the participants' desktop. The communication between the five persons was monitored for five months by automatic logs, interviews and questionnaires. Communication service choice was analysed on basis of log data on frequency. The results are discussed with regard to when different services are chosen, and the relationship between communication task and frequency of communication service choice.