I’ve seen a couple of articles on VaporStream’s “Electronic Conversation Software”. The idea is that you can send communications that look a lot like e-mail, but the communication is temporary, exists in the cloud, and resides in your computers RAM (temporary memory). Once the communication is over, it disappears and cannot be recovered, even through e-discovery methods. The product is pitched as a great resource for reducing e-mail server storage, reduce the cost of potential e-discovery litigation, and satisfy the two tenants of HIPPA requirements. I took a quick look at it this morning and found that it is more of an Instant Messaging (IM) replacement than an e-mail replacement, but that it looks to have some good uses.
When I first read about this in itWorldCanda, and then again in ECM Connection, the articles were structured in a way that made me think that this was something that could potentially replace e-mail. I started dreaming of a situation where all those crappy vendor emails that I get ALL DAY LONG, could vanish automatically after I read/skimmed/ignore them. However, I quickly learned that you could only send or receive communicate with others that are also on the VaporStream software. So, my visions of a magic vendor communications fell to the wayside.
So here’s the reader’s digest version of how the product works:
- Sign-up for VaporStream’s service (free 60-day trial… $7.50/mth after that).
- Get everyone that you want to have confidential, temporary communications with to also sign up.
- Use VaporStream’s web or app interface to send and receive communications from other VaporStream users.
- The messages are sent and read via SSL (secure) through VaporStream’s interface, and reside in your computers temporary memory (RAM).
- When done, the message disappears and cannot be recovered.