Proposing Instant Messaging clients as a tool in disseminating information at Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)

Abstract

Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) is located at the northernmost part of the Malaysian peninsula, less than 35 km from the borders of Thailand. Originally known as KUKUM (Kolej Universiti Kejuruteraan Utara Malaysia, or Northern Malaysia University College of Engineering), it was approved by the Cabinet as a public institution of higher learning in May, 2001. It first intake comprised 116 engineering students, who started classes in June, 2002. It now has about 3000 students, and a workforce of more than 600 people comprising academic and non-academic staff. In view of the fact that UNIMAP is a distributed campus, many of its staff are scattered all over the state of Perlis, hence communication amongst staff are fairly difficult and costly. The form of communication tools widely used to disseminate information in UniMAP are e-mails, meetings, memos and letters but there is Instant Messaging Clients (IMC) to facilitate communication among staff. The aim of this paper is to propose IMC as an instrument to disseminate information in UniMAP so that costs can be minimized, and valuable knowledge can be shared with ease.