Thing 8 - IM, SMS, Web conferencing

This one should be easy for most.. I have had an IM account for a while, use SMS to communicate with my family, have used web conferencing for training. I imagine most people have some experience with this?
I have my iPhone configured to use AIM, but mostly use SMS since my son prefers it (over 1200 messages a month for him!) The Web conferencing has been around for trainings for a long time and I have taken advantage of its capabilities.
For IM in the library, I think Meebo is a good choice - allows for communication across platforms and the librarian would only need one service. I can see this being useful in the school media centers after hours, but, of course, nobody would get paid for this and that is a service killer. Students during the day are not allowed to use IM at school, so establishing this service would be tricky in my high school. For a public library, it seems it could be a choice if reference desk librarians take turns to reply, just like they do with the phone requests.
Messaging is expensive in some phone plans and I imagine unlimited messages for an institution are not as cheap as they are for an individual - SMS is a two-way street and if a patron receives a text from the library s/he will likely want to reply. Broadcasting could be the solution or sending from a blocked phone, I guess. I still don't see this happening in the public school sector.
As far as web conferencing, I think our students are so used to Youtube that something like this, synchronous, would be as exciting... as being in the classroom. We did have a neat NASA conference with the astronauts orbiting around the Earth - this was a unique opportunity for a packed auditorium to see the guys in space and ask synchronous questions and receive immediate answers. Goosebumps!
I will be exploring OPAL in the near future and perhaps find a webminar my students can relate to - or perhaps one I can enjoy for personal growth.
I also have Twitterrific installed in my iPhone... I follow Katie and my son when my phone decides to work, but I don't see the need to update my Facebook status AND Twitter. This is definitely overkill!
(Why would my daughter choose Facebook updates to let me know she was all right after a car crash instead of calling????)