Concept 1: Your audience's use of communication
To do, to inform or both?
If it is only to provide information, the subject metadata is clear and meaningful, with attachment for further support the subject.
It is presented by attaching relevant document in different form, such as a PowerPoint slide, Word document, Excel chart etc.
If an action is required it needs to be very clear the who, the why, the what, the when and how.
The email communicates those points.
When there are actions to be taken, the recipient of the email understands almost at a glance what they are, right at the beginning of the email, this is made clear.
The rest of the reading material only supports in details what has to be done.
We have to think of all the actions, if they are achievable. There can be multiple actions that need to be acted on by more than one person. This is made very clear, who does what.
As a sender, we change 'hats', and makes sure that the data makes sense to us, as if we are the receiver. We check and modify the content of the email, over and over again to make sure the right message gets through. Once the email is sent, and if it is not the right message, it is impossible to retrieve and get back, without causing a lot of confusion in the process. It would reach a number of people in a very short time and would waste a lot of time and credibility.
Electronic communication, because of its speed and broadcasting ability, is fundamentally different from paper-based communication. Because the turnaround time can be so fast, email is more conversational than traditional paper-based media.
As an experienced user we always consider our audience. Does the recipient have the appropriate tools to access information, the data?
We do not assume that the recipients are complete savvy. The messages could appear in the body of the email and no other piece of software is required to access the information.
More often than not the attached document is in an Excel, Word, PDF or other format. In some companies their System administrator makes sure that the employees do not download any other piece of software, but only the ones that are based on the company policy, and as the policy dictates.
We are often required to access different sites by links provided in emails, for further information. We are then required to download software to allow us to get that information.
There is so much information available on the Internet and for most of us; this is where we go daily, to get our information.
Website designers get very creative to get our attention. Sometimes more often than not, websites attract the wrong audience by trying to appeal to everyone.
Website designers have to be very clear of their intention and expectations otherwise instead of attracting the right audience they send them to the opposition, never to return.
Site 1. Makes Email Different?
"In a paper document, it is absolutely essential to make everything completely clear and unambiguous because your audience may not have a chance to ask for clarification. With email documents, your recipient can ask questions immediately. Email thus tends, like conversational speech, to be sloppier than communications on paper. This is not always bad. It makes little sense to slave over a message for hours, making sure that your spelling is faultless, your words eloquent, and your grammar beyond reproach, if the point of the message is to tell your co-worker that you are ready to go to lunch. However, your correspondent also won't have normal status cues such as dress, diction, or dialect, so may make assumptions based on your name, address, and - above all - facility with language. You need to be aware of when you can be sloppy and when you have to be meticulous".
The beginners book of email communication (freeware)
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
Although the above quote is a public shareware, it is relevant and explains clearly what an email communication is all about. I find the article very useful and credible as it uses common sense. It also relates and supports the concept of audience's use of communication.
Site 2: Why is email so important and return on investment
"There are enormous benefits the email customer communication channel.
They include:
Email is cheaper than sales and services by telephone. Company has better control of information provided to customers.
Emails create an “information trail”
Emails can be written at anytime, anywhere, and sent to many companies at once.
Return on Investment – Turn your Email cost centre into a value adding business unit your company would never dream of unleashing a telephone operator on customers without appropriate safeguards; things like recruitment, training, quality assurance and monitoring. Why do you do it with email operators?"
About E-Write
"E-Write was established by David Goldberg in response to client demand for a simple writing course designed specifically for email communication. Since then we have expanded our product range to include a full suite of writing and testing products.E-Write’s goal is simple. We provide top quality training and testing solutions to arm your company with the knowledge, skill and customer focus to increase customer experience and build your brand.About David-'David Goldberg has a passion for plain English writing and is Australia’s leading email customer experience expert. Having qualified university with a bachelor of laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts, David has worked at one of Australia’s leading commercial law firms and is currently a practising lawyer. David also worked at customer experience company Global Reviews, delivering email consulting and advice on best practice email customer experience to many of Australia and New Zealand’s leading companies. David Goldberg has a passion for plain English writing and is Australia’s leading email customer experience expert. Having qualified university with a bachelor of laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts, David has worked at one of Australia’s leading commercial law firms and is currently a practising lawyer. David also worked at customer experience company Global Reviews, delivering email consulting and advice on best practice email customer experience to many of Australia and New Zealand’s leading companies".
http://www.ewrite.com.au/email/why.html
This is a Commercial Company, and it primary purpose is to promote and sell their services. They offer a range of training services and Email Training is one of them. The site also provides access to useful information, which is relevant and support my argument. The Company director and author of the articles, is experienced in his field and very credible.
Concept 2: Concept Title - Netiquette
The content of email should be treated the same as a face to face situation. Very often the originator of an email does not consider their tone or audience for that matter. Many use a very different language; seem aggressive when communicating via email. In a face to face situation most people are polite but most do not communicate the same way when emailing.
Use the metadata to create a relationship with your audience, be sociable. Whatever is said quickly in an email, is passed on to many, documented and transmitted, and is now public record that can be used against you, without your permission, with unintended consequences.
Some Company's bad rules:
Their salutation can be up to 1/2 page
the messages to save the environment has a reverse effect
The privacy comment goes on for ever and is unenforceable
A full page of nothing, which add to the traffic volume
What intended to be good practice is often rubbish
& some good stuff
Informal use is the same, conflict - no commonsense, common courtesy, no manners whatsoever and when put in an email sounds worst, it comes across much worse.
There are no rules but there are often formal guidelines. Some Companies email policies let you know what you can and cannot do. The format, the font, the style to use etc.
As part of an employment contract agreement, some Companies make potential employees sign an induction process.
There are also lots of informal guidelines.
There have been a lot of suggestions and guidelines, as experienced in the NET11 unit. Yet this has not quite helped everyone. The unit Discussion Board has a lot of examples of ordinary email communication, to say the least.
You need a lot of common sense and decent manners. Intelligence and knowledge have nothing to do with it.
There are numerous differences and disagreements about the rules.
The rules to consider, is it gender specific, age specific, professional specific, culture, race etc...
The language used between 'mates' is not appropriate for all.
The older demographic are used to a different and more formal way of communication. The etiquette they are accustomed to, for example the Dear Sir, Madam etc...
The younger generation speaks in an 'SMS' way, abbreviated form that would be meaningless, and offensive to the older generation.
In a professionals point of view, they use acronym. In finance, ABSm MACD, SAEF etc. Information Technology acronyms HTML, IP, OPAC to name a few would be meaningless to most, outside of that sphere.
As for culture, a Christian name is offensive when asked to a non Christian demographic. At the Olympics that became very obvious, when we had people from all different cultures and background. There were not enough spaces provided on forms to enter athlete's names, and some nationalities do not have a first name.
It is important when we engage in an asynchronous communication, we always have to treat others the way we would expect to be treated or addressed.
Therefore that is the way you want to be treated then you have the ethical responsibility to behave properly, non abrasive, non sexist etc...
We have an obligation to address and reply to the audience in a well constructed, non abusive and respectful manner.
Emails communication is usually to another person, very personal, or has a very limited audience.
Emails can also contain attachment such as a brochure promoting our services or products.
They can also be abusive, sexist, boring, lengthy and a waste of time. They will be file away in the 'no answer' folder and forgotten about.
Site 1: Study Guides and Strategies
This site is comprehensive and contains the "Ten Commandments of E-Mail Netiquette".
It summarises in a point form all of what I am trying to say in my Netiquette concept 2.
It is very relevant to this study and reinforces what I have written about the Netiquette.
Joe Landsberger is credible, has his own website http://www.studygs.net/joe/index.htm. He has performed several Academic presentations.
"Website overview: Since 1996 the Study Guides and Strategies web site has been researched, authored, maintained and supported by Joe Landsberger as an international, learner-centric, educational public service".
http://www.studygs.net/netiquette.htm
Site 2: Our responsibility
"As the Internet continues to evolve, so do the issues that impact the way we use it. From privacy, security and freedom of speech, to honesty and consideration in the way we interact with others, we all have a responsibility to preserve and protect its unique character. That means recognizing that while the medium is in many ways a reflection of the physical world, it is in other ways, fundamentally different--manifesting its own customs and practices.This is a commercial site and sell educational products and services via the Internet. It also containg some useful information. It supports my argument and I think in this context the article makes perfect sense as it is just common sense and very acceptable".
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/09netiqt_2.htm
Concept 3: Concept Title - The relationship of data to meta-data
The header of an email contains meta-data, the sender, the receiver, who it is copied to, and who it is blind copied to. It also contains the date stamp as of when it was sent, the subject of what it is all about, and perhaps an attachment as support document. The email meta-data, as compared to the postal system which does not tell the receiver as much, can convey valuable information at just a glance.
The face to face communication has its advantages and disadvantages. If it is not articulated properly; the exchange of information is comparable to a very poorly addressed email.
The importance of the email meta-data, is that it contains all the important information that can be saved and retrieved at any time, and as often as required, as opposed to an actual envelope and the letter, where the meta-data cannot be accessed, save or otherwise.
Prior to software being available to capture the meta-data and content of the emails, such as outlook, there were databases, customised programmes that were created to capture relevant information from an envelope and its contents. Nowadays the information is easily captured and stored. Most users advanced or otherwise can easily create folders under different headings to file relevant information.
There is still a need to make use of other available software to capture certain information not available in the meta-data. Some companies do not support the tools that are often used by advanced users or the latest upgrades. They opt to keep using programmes that have been in place for decades and that are still providing the necessary information. Why change if it is not broken? Companies want to reach as many potential customers as possible. The consequences of using the most sophisticated and latest internet software tools, to communicate to or reach the target audience, is that most users are not able to access the information as perceived. A lost of a potential customer is a cost that a company cannot afford. This potential customer may never return or will find other companies that are more accessible.
Microsoft Office tools are used by most, but most don’t just upgrade to the latest version as soon as it is available. It is a very costly exercise and smaller companies struggle to keep up. The simple task of sending an excel spreadsheet may cause inconsiderable time lost and frustration. Simply because the latest version used is not compatible to previous versions of the software.
E.g. The latest version of excel shows a minus sign in red, if it is required to be printed, more that often on a black & white printer), prints black not red. This simple action can trigger a lot of confusion.
E.g. Word has special characters imbedded in the document that cannot be accessed by most other word processors or text editors.
Accessing Web pages on the other hand, we get the information in the form it is presented and not necessarily what we need or want. The information cannot be highlighted as we would if it were a printed document. For the majority of users, the process of capturing the information is very manual, copying and pasting or perhaps capturing some screen dump.
Site 1: Compatibility Problems
The new version of Word has a lot of interesting new features, even useful ones. But unfortunately most don’t need or want to use those new features. This link may be useful for those who want to make sure that their Word files are always saved in a .doc format. This is the older version of Word. The default when saving a file using Word 7 is a .docx extension, not .doc. This would save a lot of anguish and frustration.
http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/01/reduce-word-2007-compatibility.html
Site 2: Metadata - Data about Data
This is a great source of information. Metadata - Data about Data. The meta-data from an email provides a lot of information. The meta-data that can be captured from electronic files can again provide even more useful, important information. The email headers and attachments have hidden data, which can be extracted using the right tools. Using Explorer and clicking of any file or image on your computer, provides you information about that file. The file type, its description, size, when it was created, accessed and much more. It is common for companies nowadays needing to create their own warehouse and capture such information.
Microsoft Office and Metadata
"Microsoft Office files, like other types of digital data, also carry metadata, called document metadata. Some of the types of metadata that may be stored along with your saved office documents can include your name, initials, company name, computer name, the disk or network server the file was stored in, file properties, revisions, hidden text, deleted comments, and so much more. Microsoft Office documents are frequently passed among co-workers, clients and contractors, so when the documents are shared, quite often, so is large amounts of metadata".
This following link, links to a site which is geared to provide information to small businesses and is also linked to other sites promoting their services. It is comparable to wikipedia, but seems to be the first online encyclopedia for computer technology. It is a good reference site but depending on the type of research that is required. This site is more than adequate to most who require basic information about any computer technology related topics. I cannot work out if it is a company or part of internet.com, it has numerous links to commercial sites and has lots of partners. It must be and seems to be of a commercial site, promoting products and services, as well as providing useful information.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/metadata.asp
Concept 4: Concept Title - Communication is not complete upon receipt.
It is common knowledge that when assuming anything makes a fool of you and I.
The subject line in an email is very important to get right. It has to be precise. If we want the receiver to act or look further, set the tone first and foremost. The subject should contain at least one verb, one noun. As a general rule do something. E.g. send Invoice.
The 'to' meta-data is the person expected to do what the subject meta-data says. The 'cc' the person it is copied to is not expected to do anything. The person is kept informed, as perhaps to the manager, supervisor of a department. If the person cc'ed to, is away then the manager of the department takes the necessary steps and ensures that the email is actioned on.
This is an example of some of the process that is in place in some organised environment. To be more precise we time scale the subject matter as well. For example 'send Invoice by March 2nd.
In the body of the email message, once the email is accessed the structure of the first section, will describe everything needed to get the job done. Otherwise this information gets buried and lost, if placed somewhere at the bottom of the communication.
In this example it is a finance department, and the information required is the Name of the company, the address, the amount owed etc. There may also be an attachment such as a purchase order to support the task as the process dictates. If there is no formal process in place and if we need confirmation that the email has been received, some rules or flags can be put in place, such as the ones available in outlook.
The 'bcc'to oneself, can be a way of filing/keeping a copy of the email as necessary. As part of the process to make it more transparent and consistent, and more importantly to complete the loop, a 'Done & Sent message' could be sent to the originator of the email as well as the ones copied to. If targeting your recipient appropriately the process is simple. The email traffic is minimised, time is saved as no one gets unnecessary emails in their inbox. The rules practiced can be clear and precise, but the advanced user should educate others and make sure that everyone knows what process is in place.
As for email communications, to be sure that websites meet their intended expectations, there should be measures put in place to check the results. The number of hits a website gets does not mean that it is successful campaign. It is only one measure but meaningless. It tells us that the meta-data searches work well. This is a costly exercise with no desired outcome.
The need to capture the meta-data is important for business to follow through and close the loop. For example a software company needs to sell software through a website, and in order to do so, the website has to be able to attract the right audience and keep them interested, until such time the customer purchases the software, then loop is not complete.
The process should be constantly monitored and assessed. We should never assume and always improve our website based on the analysis as of which section needs looking after. It is like building a relationship and consider where it needs more care and attention.
Site1: One Company's E-mail terms and condition
"Terms and Conditions Regarding E-mail ALL E-MAILS SENT TO AND FROM AND WITHIN OUR COMPANY ARE SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
The Title Source® family of companies (collectively “Company”) are dedicated to revolutionizing the Title Insurance and Settlement Services Industry. A big part of that “revolution” is based upon prompt and convenient communication with our clients, vendors and others. For that reason, we offer various means of communication including e-mail, fax, telephone, chat, snail-mail, express mail, voice mail, etc. To demonstrate our commitment to prompt and convenient communications, we have adopted the following terms and conditions, regarding e-mail, which are incorporated by reference into all e-mails sent and received by our Team Members (i.e., our employees). Our communications with you via e-mail are conditioned upon your agreement to the following terms'.
Services provided by Title Source, Inc.
© 2000 - 2009 Title Source, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Title Source® is a service mark of Title Source, Inc.
May 18, 2009"
http://www.titlesourceinc.com/email.aspx
E-mail is so widely used within organisations, most companies' managers, nowadays treat their e-mails systems very seriously. They cannot afford not to do so. It is important that the rules are made clear and publicised throughout the company, so that the employees are made very aware, know what is expected of them.
Site 2. Fair certified e-mail delivery
ABSTRACT
"Communication by e-mail has become a vital part of everyday business and has replaced most of the conventional ways of communicating. Important business correspondence may require certified e-mail delivery, analogous to that provided by conventional mail service. This paper presents a novel certified e-mail delivery protocol that provides non-repudiation of origin and non-repudiation of receipt security services to protect communicating parties from each other's false denials that the e-mail has been sent and received. The protocol provides strong fairness to ensure that the recipient receives the e-mail if and only if the sender receives the receipt. The protocol makes use of an off-line and transparent trusted third party only in exceptional circumstances, i.e. when the communicating parties fail to complete the e-mail for receipt exchange due to a network failure or a party's misbehaviour. Considerations have been taken in the protocol design to reduce the use of expensive cryptographic operations for better efficiency and cost-effectiveness".
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=967900.967985
Symposium on Applied Computing Proceedings of the 2004 ACM symposium on Applied computing Nicosia, Cyprus SESSION: Computer securityPages: 391 - 396 Year of Publication: 2004 ISBN:1-58113-812-1
Authors: Alekandra Nenadic (University of Manchester, UK)
Ning Zhang (University of Manchester, UK)
Stephen Barton (University of Manchester, UK)
Sponsor: ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing
References:
The beginners book of email communication (freeware)
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
E-Write
http://www.ewrite.com.au/email/why.html
Joe Landsberger
http://www.studygs.net/joe/index.htm
http://www.studygs.net/netiquette.htm
www.intelliadmin.com
http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/01/reduce-word-2007-compatibility.html
www.internet.com
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/metadata.asp
Services provided by Title Source, Inc.
© 2000 - 2009 Title Source, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Title Source® is a service mark of Title Source, Inc.
May 18, 2009"
http://www.titlesourceinc.com/email.aspx
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=967900.967985
Symposium on Applied Computing Proceedings of the 2004 ACM symposium on Applied computing Nicosia, Cyprus SESSION: Computer securityPages: 391 - 396 Year of Publication: 2004 ISBN:1-58113-812-1
Authors: Alekandra Nenadic (University of Manchester, UK)
Ning Zhang (University of Manchester, UK)
Stephen Barton (University of Manchester, UK)
Sponsor: ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing
4 years ago
