This is the C in ICT and means all things to all folk. Is it mobile phone text messaging, sending IM messages across the world or what?
In this context I think that it is formal text based messages that can be saved in either MS Word format or straight ASCII text files but remember, ASCII files include E-mail and HTML within E-mail messages.
In 1978 the Word Processor WordStar was about to enjoy its 10 years of fame. It was overtaken by Word Perfect and then MS Word.
Today any office must be able to read MS Word files and can do with a free viewer from the Micro Soft site.
I am using Text Pad to write these notes. A simple but powerful text editor with Macros and a Spell Checker. It's all I need to make ASCII files.
Google Docs is my recommendation for Creating, Sharing, Viewing or Modifying MS Word files.
If searching the web with Google is good then it must be a good thing to be able to search through all of your E-mails with G-Mail You have 2 Giga Bytes of online storage and all the other features of a machine based E-mail system. Plus you can use it from any location, it's online!
If you have a access to broadband connection why not use Skype to phone or send Text Messages. You will need a VOIP phone.
For International calls this site may help you find the country code.
Pownce says; "Pownce is a great way to send stuff to people you know."
My Public Profile is here
My review of Pownce is here
Twitter is about answering the question, what are you doing?
Jaiku is about status updates, presence, mobile presence and sharing via content aggregation.