Part 1 of 2

Email is so pervasive in our lives that many people, I’m sure, wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if someone pulled the Internet plug. A few short years ago, email was considered an “unreliable” delivery mechanism, meaning that if you had something of importance to say or send, you’d better use a backup plan to be sure your recipient got it.

No more. Email is routinely subpoenaed in legal cases. It’s considered in many courts to be as good as a written contract and there are several “contract” sites that rely on email for contract execution.

People now receive mail on their cell phones and blackberry’s. While some predicted that SPAM would be a major detriment to the email infrastructure, we’ve managed to handle it pretty well, both from a legislative and technical perspective.

Yet, I never cease to be amazed by what people “do” in email. Whether it’s forwarding something inappropriate or including a vast number of people on a “CC” list or replying to “all” instead of “one”…the list goes on. So, here is the current “Dave Segrove list of things to do and not to do” when it comes to email. Some are just ideas, some are common sense and others are…well, I’ll let you decide.

“DO NOTs”, “GOTCHAs” and other things(in no particular order)

1. WORK AND PLAY DON’T MIX

Do not confuse business and pleasure. In my mind, this has got to be the most ignored and fundamental “rule” when it comes to email. There are several “sub-categories” under this heading.

• Chain Emails

  I may be on your mailing list for some reason and I’m happy to be. But if my relationship with you is business-related, I do not want to see your chain emails. A “chain email” is one that you must forward to 10 or 100 people in order to get the message out, for good luck, to avoid bad luck, to sign a petition…the list goes on. SPAM still accounts for over 90% of all email traffic and chain emails are a big part of that.

  That’s not to say there is no place for some very good chain emails, but consider the recipient. Send it to your friends and family perhaps, but not your business colleagues.

• Jokes, Cartoons Etc

  I’m always amazed at the number of these I get from people I’d never have expected to. I like a good joke or cartoon as much as the next person, and if I get one from a friend or family member, that’s very different. I don’t expect (unless perhaps in rare cases) to receive these from business associates.

  Bottom line: you don’t know whether you might offend the recipient and you don’t know what that might result in.

  Many companies prohibit this sort of traffic as part of their policy, but I see it all the time.

• Pictures, Family Stories Etc

  Sorry gang, but business is business. If we’re friends, then by all means add me to your Facebook list or send me your photos or stories. As a colleague, client or vendor, I shouldn’t be copied on these.

2. DO NOT ASSUME PERMISSION

We may have communicated in the past. I may have received your business card from you in a meeting. Please don’t assume I gave you permission to add me to your mailing list. If you want to add me to your mailing list, send me an email or call me to ask.

In most cases, people are quite happy to join your list, but don’t take it for granted.

3. DO NOT BE CASUAL

If your email is business-related, keep the language thus. Don’t assume a “tone” you would not use in conversation. Email is very subject to misinterpretation, specifically because you cannot hear the voice inflexions of the sender.

4. NEVER EVER USE PROFANITY

’nuff said.

5. DON’T ABBREVIATE

Email is not texting. Sure, you may be emailing from your cell phone or portable device, but that’s your problem. Abbreviations are subject to interpretation. Don’t assume that someone will understand what TTYL or L8R means.

6. BIG ATTACHMENTS

As Internet “pipes” get bigger, so do email attachments. Unless someone’s expecting a big file, either give them some notice or find another way (FTP for example) of getting it to them. Many corporate firewalls and routers will block big messages. You run the risk of not knowing whether it was received or not. Not all email systems will tell you.

Big attachments also fill up mail boxes and may cost money in bandwidth, for either you or the recipient.

7. SHOOTING FROM THE HIP

“Flaming” is an Internet term for an attack on another. While these tend to happen in forum settings, they can happen in emails too. It’s very easy to take offense at a message, type a quick reply and hit send before you’ve had time to take a breath.

Now what?

Remember, in most cases you cannot take it back. You cannot “un-say”. If something upsets you, be careful before replying. In my case, I’ll often type up what I want to say in a word processor. That way, there’s little chance of me sending the message by accident (or on purpose). After I calm down, I can edit or delete what I’ve typed and then copy and paste it into an email.

8. IT WILL OUTLIVE YOU

Copies of email messages are stored all over the place. Don’t assume an email conversation is just between you and the receiver. Don’t send something that might come back to bite you later. Email is legally admissible in many places as evidence. Just because you deleted it from “Sent Items” doesn’t delete it from the Internet.

9. REPLY TO “ALL” / FORWARDING

This can be amusing when it happens. It can also be deadly (business-wise). You receive an email from someone who has copied a group of people. You reply with a comment intended for the sender’s eyes only. You hit “send”.

Hang on, did you replay to “all”…? Uh oh…

I received an email recently from someone who forwarded an email from someone else and I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t supposed to see the original because it wasn’t very nice. In fact, it’s what prompted this article.

Be careful when replying to messages that were sent to a group. Ditto, be careful when forwarding a message to one or more people. Is there something that wasn’t intended for general consumption in there?

10. AN ADDRESS THAT ISN’T “PORTABLE” OR APPROPRIATE

Now, this last item may be determined by your company. If you work for a corporation and use their email system, you are probably expected to send and receive work-related emails with a company address. In nearly every case, you can’t take this with you when you leave.

So, if you are using your company address for something else, you might want to stop doing so. This may be against company policy to begin with, but if you can’t take it with you, are you going to have a problem if you leave?

Use an email address suitable for your business. If you want to use AOL or GMAIL or YAHOO, then do so, but use an address that works and that is appropriate. onehotguy@[emailsystem.com] may be cool for your personal life, but does it work for your new legal practice?

So, there you have it. I’m sure there are many other things that could be on the list. As email evolves, we need to as well. It’s no longer the casual tool a few years years ago.

If you made it thus far, you have my complete admiration. This wasn’t supposed to be a novel when it started…if you email it to anyone, you might want to just send a link…I think that’s appropriate

DAVE’S FRIDAY FEATURE

Last Friday I finished the week with an article on emoticons. I had some interesting feedback and, as promised, am following up with this Friday’s feature: Web Abbreviations (or Webbreviations).

Whether you’re texting, instant messaging, playing online games, or even emailing, from time-to-time you’ll seen an abbreviation.

Some, such as LOL (laughing out loud) are so commonplace as to merit entry in commercial dictionaries. In order to expand your web diction, below is a list of some of the more (or less) common abbreviations you might see out there.

Okay, now you’re totally l33t and will be able to understand what your kids are saying (jk). There are literally hundreds of abbreviations out there. This small list comprises some of the more "universal" ones.

I’ve left some of the less appropriate ones out, but there are plenty of those too.

So, get online and I’ll ttyl!

As nearly everyone knows, SPAM is "unsolicited bulk email". However, what some people may not realize is that just providing an "opt-out" to recipients does not qualify their message as "not spam".

Many bulk email systems used for marketing require what is known as "confirmed opt-it" addresses. Simply put, this is an address that has been verified and that the recipient wants to receive messages.

In may places on the Internet, by law, an "opt-out" link must be prominently displayed, along with company information from the sender, but sending an unsolicited email with the opt-out link and company information may not be enough if the recipient did not agree to receive such messages from the sender.

As succinctly put on the SPAMHAUS.org site (SPAMHAUS is one of the places that tracks and maintains "blacklists"), "Nobody must ever be required to opt-out of anything they did not opt-in to in the first place". Furthermore, the state as their "Golden Rule" : "Never buy email addresses from another company."

As tempting as it might be to circumvent the system, ISP (Internet Service Providers) and email hosting companies as well as some government agencies are beginning to seriously crack down on SPAM and the definition of what is considered SPAM is evolving. Ignorance is no defense.

If you’re going to send bulk email, send it legitimately.

You can read more about this subject at www.SPAMHAUS.org.

By the way – their suggestion is that when you receive unwanted email, do not use the "opt out" link because it validates that someone is on the receiving end of the message (and you might end up downloading something nasty). Better to mark it as "junk" and let your spam filter take it from there.

Microsoft introduced the Windows Task Scheduler several years ago. It’s one of those useful little tools that not too many people know about but comes in rather useful from time to time.

As the name implies, Task Scheduler allows you to set up an “appointment” to accomplish a task or run a program at a point or recurring time in the future. The scheduler is used by many programs already. For example, when you configure your antivirus software to update itself at 1:00 in the morning, it probably uses the Task Scheduler to store that information. If you have backup software, or for that matter, almost any software, that runs or updates something on a given schedule, it’s probably using the Windows Scheduler.

With a few simple steps, so can you.

Let’s say, for example, you want to defragment your hard drive on a regular basis (highly recommended, see my December 31 post 7.5 Ways to a Faster PC), but don’t want it interfering with your work and you don’t want to have to remember to do it before you finish for the day – a perfect reason to use the Task Scheduler.

To run the task scheduler, you need to access Control Panel or Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks. The Task Manager may already have some items in it, your antivirus updates perhaps?

You can use the built-in Wizard to quickly set up your task by double-clicking the “Add Scheduled Task” option. Selecting “Next” will take you to the list of programs you can run in your schedule.

If you’re using my Windows Defragmenter example, the Windows Disk Defragmenter, happens to not be in the list so we’ll select “Browse“. We need to browse to C:\WINDOWS\System32 and find the Defrag module (defrag.exe) and select “Open“.

Next, you’ll be prompted to give the task a meaningful name (I used “Weekly Defrag“) and set a schedule as to when you want to run it. Click Next.

Here you get to pick the day of the week and time of day to run your task (I picked Thursday at 11:00 pm). Click Next.

If you use a password to log into your system, you may be prompted to do that now. This is that Windows can run the task using your credentials, even it your computer is locked or logged out.

The final screen will show you what you’ve select to run and when and voila! When you look at the task scheduler next time, your new task should be there.

If you’re using my Defrag example, you’ll need to make one additional change. Right-click on the task you’ve just added and select “Properties“. In the little box that says “Run“, you’ll see “c:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe“. Put a space and “C:” (or what ever drive you want to defrag) after that so it reads “c:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe C:” and press “Apply.”

Deleting your new tasks is as simple as right-clicking and selecting “Delete“. You can modify a task too. If you’re a little more familiar with Windows, you can access the “Advanced Options” and play with a whole host of bells and whistles. Finally, you can test your task by right-clicking and selecting “Run“.

You can use the Task Manager for many things, starting and stopping processes, launching your email just before you get to work (a built-in office assitant right there for you…just need to figure out how to get the coffee machine hooked up to the PC).

Anyway, have fun but be careful!

Additional Information Resources

Microsoft’s Task Scheduler for Windows XP page

Microsoft’s Task Scheduler for Windows Vista page

Microsoft’s Task Scheduler for Windows 2000 page

Dave
Follow me on Twitter

This post comes on heels of a comment left by someone in a previous post. My last couple of ramblings have concerned the use of electronic communication and questioned the social impact. This particular post relates to the legal.

If you’ve heard, seen or read news about several major legal cases over the past year or more, you’ll have heard that email records are increasingly being used in court. Enron was probably the first big case that came to everyone’s attention, but the use of email and other electronic records (ie instant messages), has been growing.

Many companies now include an “acceptable use” policy for their employees to sign. Somewhere in it, it mentions that the company, not the individual, owns the computers, software and data, including messages.

Most people know that email isn’t anonymous. Even if a message is sent from a site (and email address) that the recipient has never heard about, electronic forensic evidence is always present. Just because you delete something from your email (or your computer for that matter), doesn’t mean it’s gone.

Email and instant messages often traverse many different servers and routers around the web. Huge computers, switches and routers literally “hand off” a message from one to the other. Some keep parts or all of the message in their log files.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we live in a “Big Brother” world just yet, but common sense should prevail, especially when electronic communication is used for business matters. While there doesn’t yet seem to be a comprehensive, all-encompassing set of laws (at least from what I’ve seen), email, instant messages and other e-communiques are increasingly being accepted as legally binding.

There is an excellent article about this by an attorney Henry J. Fasthoff IV on lawyerintl.com (here’s the link) called “Electronic Evidence as the Smoking Gun“. While not intended to scare anyone (ditto this post), prudence should be always used and Mr Fasthoff’s post is a good cautionary tale.

Especially when dealing with business associates, clients and vendors, and even more so if your particular role is to provide advice. It’s awful to think that what you thought of as an opinion could be interpreted as “legal” advice (it’s always about interpretation, isn’t it). If anyone has stories (good or otherwise) I’d love to hear from you.

Before you hit “send”, just remember that you don’t want it to come back to bite you…

I should probably put a disclaimer on this blog entry too…

An increasingly large number of my clients are getting Blackberrys (or is it Blackberries…) and other texting devices. After all, it’s a tried-and-tested technology for those on the move. But speed and convenience seems to be leading to short replies that may be misinterpreted…

When your email is routed to your Blackberry and you want to reply, it’s relatively straightforward: type and send. However, the nature of the devices tends to mean that quick, one-liners are the norm. I often get these in reply, with a message footer “Sent from my Blackberry”. I know that a short and often abrupt-seeming reply is nothing more than that. Be careful, however, if you’re replying to a client or someone who may be a little more sensitive.

Interpretation of email and text messages can be very mixed. I, for one, am guilty of misunderstanding a sentence or two as mean something quite different than intended by the sender. The written messages don’t reflect the tone of the sender, so it’s prudent to take a moment and consider how the message may be interpreted.

Am I too concerned? Perhaps. But if someone sends you an email, for example “is this the best offer we can get” and you, caught up in a thousand other things, respond “yes” on your texting device, will your client think you’re being a little abrupt…even rude because they’re used to you explaining youself in “regular” email or on the phone? Will they understand BRT, LMAO or CUL8R? For those who would like to know more, here is a list of text abbreviations from Webopedia.

As technology moves forward and communication gets quicker, it’s easy to forget that what you meant to say and how it was perceived can be very easily blurred.

Here’s a Top 10 list of SMS etiquette tips from WirelessDevNt.com.

Don’t text and drive!

Dave

Texting a signal of wider trend (BBC).

A tidy computer is a faster computer, both in terms of performance and the ease with which you can find things on it. Over the course of the year, we get a lot of clutter, bits and pieces of software and files we no longer need immediate access to. Here are seven (and a half) ways to get your (Windows) computer ready for the New Year.

1. Out with the old. If you have older documents, consider archiving them. There are a couple of ways to do this. An ideal solution is to back them up to an external device (or even website such as www.datadepositbox.com) and then remove them. If this isn’t something you can do, consider creating a folder under “My Documents” and call it “Archive”. Move anything in there you don’t need right now. It will be accessible when you do and out of the way in the meantime. Consider burning some files to CD or DVD.
2. Email archiving. If you’re an Outlook user, there is an “Archive” feature available. This will back up older messages and remove them from your most commonly used folders. You can run archiving by selecting File > Archive (here is a link to the Microsoft Outlook archive page). You can set up your archive folders and automatic archiving settings under Tools > Options (here’s Microsoft’s page on automatic archiving). You can set the location of your archive file manually .
3. Email attachments. If you don’t delete all your messages, consider removing those with attachments, especially if you copied the attached file to a folder on your drive. Do you really need two?
4. Disk Cleanup. This should be run at least quarterly, probably monthly. The Disk Cleanup utility is under your Accessories > System Tools folder. When you first run it, it can take many minutes to load, so don’t panic. What the utility does is provide you with a list of removable items such as old Internet temporary files (the kind that are downloaded when you access a website). The utility will also give you the option to compress old files, remove setup files and that sort of thing. Here’s a pretty good guide to Disk Cleanup.
5. Empty the Recycle Bin. Disk Cleanup will give you this option already. Please tell me you’re not using it to store old files…If you get low on disk space, Windows may automatically (and without prompting you) delete things in the Recycle Bin so don’t use it as an archive.
6. Compressing files. There are mixed views about compression vs performance, but Windows offers a file compressing utility that shrinks the space used by files and folders. To do this, right click on a folder, click Properties > Advanced. You will see the “Compress contents to save disk space” option. Compressing files can slow access to them, but if disk space is a premium, it’s worth considering.
7. Disk Defragmentation. Again, this utility can be found under your Accessories > System Tools folder. Run it after you’ve done all your other maintenance and try to ensure it’s the only program running. When you run it, select “Analyze“. The tool will check your hard drive to see if the data can be stored in a more optimal way. You can then run “Defragment” and it will take it from there. I suggest you let it run overnight because it will bog down your computer when running. Here is a link to Microsoft’s Disk Defragmentation page. They recommend doing it weekly.

7.5 Uninstalling software: Be careful! Checking to see what you’ve got installed is probably not a bad idea. We often accumulate bits and pieces of software we no longer use, but do be careful : you don’t want to uninstall something by mistake so if you decide to do this (using Control Panel), only do so if you know exactly what you’re doing, or with the help of a professional).

Links to other helpful articles would be much appreciated.

Happy New Year!

The growth of social media has been explosive in 2008, there’s just no other way to describe it. Whether you use Twitter, ActiveRain, Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, LinkedIn or another or all of the social networking tools, you’ll have seen unprecedented growth in all of these and, with any such growth, come two very real risks: overkill and marginalization.

Email was hailed, and still is, a communication revolution. Like the telephone before it, email allows quick, almost instantaneousness transfer of information. Unlike the telephone, it can be more readily-accessible, in most cases free, allows the attachment of files and distribution to a wide audience in a relatively short time and can cause more headaches

Spam is to the emailer what solicitors are to phone users. Sometimes the two can be just as dangerous. Scams from get-rich-quick schemes to worms and viruses have been a constant threat and continue to fuel the security arms race that underpins the Internet. Unlike telephone solicitation, it’s not quite as easy to join a “do-not-email” list, although there are such things. Many emails come from parts of the world where local laws don’t apply. Email can come from many more channels that phone calls and the majority of email users have at least two accounts

Over 90% of email traffic is spam, according to many studies. I use that number conservatively because I believe it’s much higher. That means that 90% of the messages “out there” are junk, unwanted, unsolicited, wasting bandwidth and disk space. Some people predict(ed) the possible end of email unless we can get a handle on spam

Social media networking has the potential to follow the same route. Like email, and the telephone before it, when used properly, blogs, instant messaging and business relationship networking tools can be invaluable in building and maintaining connections. Social media has given everyone the opportunity to reach a potential global audience without the enormous cost of production or printing.

But therein lies some of the problem. At the risk of offending people: there’s a lot of junk out there. I remember a quote from a move (The Krays) “you’ve got nothing to say and you’re saying it too loudly”. When it comes to social media, there are many people who haven’t got a lot to say, so they flood the “e”waves with rubbish, often in the hopes that someone will pick it up and run with it.

Unlike email, we have an easier option when it comes to blogs: we can bypass and not read what we think isn’t worth it. On networks such a Twitter, things can be a little more difficult if one is “following” someone, because one is potentially inundated with tweets and retweets. But, environments such as Twitter give us the option of removing someone from a “follow” list and thus relieving our electronic ears of their babble

Sorting the wheat from the chaff can be difficult. When there is so much out there, how on earth do you find what’s worth reading? And, if you plan to be part of this growing phenomenon, how do you do so without being part of the problem?

The answer is: tread carefully. Many people filter their incoming phone calls and emails, ignoring, blocking and marking unwanted messages (or calls) as junk and blocking future messages. The same diligence is needed on social networks when it comes to picking out the worthwhile from the rest.

More importantly, what you say is just as relevant. There are whole books written on subjects such as blog marketing, guerrilla marketing, social media marketing etc that strongly urge you to get involved. If you want people to visit your site, your blog, you have to interact so they’ll know you exist. Trouble is, how do you do that? Leaving simple “nice post” messages isn’t going to get you readers or followers. Engaging in dialogue will

The leading bloggers have an ongoing discourse with their readers. The most successful engage in two-way conversations that address the good and the bad. It’s a dialogue and dialogue can be interesting and that interest can lead to new followers with similar, or differing, viewpoints.

Social networking takes effort. The results take time. How many emails do you see from mass-emailing sites that you either delete or ignore? Dozens? Hundreds? As social media evolves, people are going to get better at quickly determining what is worth following and what is not

I actively encourage my clients to blog. It can be one of the best and free marketing tools out there. For those that think that no one would be interested in what they do, I encourage them to write about something they find interesting that’s got nothing to do with what they do. Everyone has an opinion about something. A conversation that is genuinely of interest to both parties almost be default, builds a relationship

Write about what you care about. Start a blog. It’s easy and free. On places such as ActiveRain, you can select specific groups to post to. Just don’t post for the sake for it. Especially when replying and trying to engage others in a dialogue, be courteous. You don’t have to be a linguist, and it’s okay to say “nice post”, but tell the poster why

Imagine being at a social event, a party for example. You overhear someone talking about something that you’re interested in, but you have a different take on it. Do you say something? That depends on you. But it’s unlikely you’d just stand there and say “I agree” or “that’s rubbish” without having something to add as to why you feel the way you do. You’d probably also not stand there and shout out (to no one in particular) “hey, my website is cool, here’s the address…”

You may be shy and not say anything. That’s okay too, but remember you get back what you put in

That may not be the best analogy, but I think it makes my point

If you have an opinion, by all means share it. Engage.

In 2009, be part of the social networking (r)evolution. That’s what social media is all about

Maybe it’s just the time of year or perhaps it’s the spell for rather chilly weather we’re having here in the “Valley of the Sun”, but (as you can tell from previous posts), I’ve been thinking much about electronic communication of late.

When email and instant messaging first debuted on what was then a fledgling Internet, there was some debate as to the social acceptance of these communication methods. Firing off an email is quicker and easier than writing or typing a letter. It’s also cheaper and timelier. More often than not, you can even tell whether it’s been received and read.

Yes the pervasion of these rapid forms of communication have, to some degree, added an air of casualness (is that even a word??) to discourse. What was once considered socially unacceptable has become the norm. By that I mean abbreviations, spelling, typos and grammar. This is a double-edges sword. E-communication has allowed the expansion of business and social networking like nothing before. Some would say that the removal of old fashioned “rules” is a necessary part of an evolution in how we communicate. Others would mourn the lowering of acceptable standards. I’m sure rain forests would agree on the side of evolution.

Apart from the ease with which we now converse and the debate over acceptability of presentation, many electronic systems have made life easier. Beyond email and instant messaging, we now have blogs and social media sites such as ActiveRain, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s possible to conceive a thought, put it into words and publish it to the world almost instantly. Go back just a decade and consider how far we’ve come.

Yet has this ease of communication come to the detriment of thoughtfulness?

There are some who would consider the purchase of a gift card to be an easier and less thoughtful present than purchasing an actual gift. Others would see it as giving the recipient the option to choose what they would like. By the same token, could buying something online , having it wrapped “automatically” and sent directly to the recipient, be considered as less thoughtful than going to a store, buying, wrapping and shipping a gift?

Taken a step further, is sending a greeting card using an online service, less meaningful than hand-writing each card, affixing a stamp and mailing it?

For the record, I do all of the above. I am a regular shopper at Amazon.com. Most of my family lives overseas and it’s both easier and cheaper to shop on a localized website (i.e. Amazon in the UK) and have the gift wrapped and shipped instead of having to do it from here.

I use Send-Out-Cards for greeting cards. I can keep my address book online, select a card, “write” my message and send it without leaving my computer. The recipient gets a card with a nicely hand-written-esque font.

Does this mean I care less than I should? Am I taking the easy way out?

From my side of the fence I think not. I could understand all the arguments opposing my view. It’s a matter of perspective. Electronic communication, in all it’s forms, whether email or electronic-to-physical card, has made life more convenient. It has, for me, made me more reliable. I want to send greeting cards and gifts. I still take the time to pick them out. I choose my words carefully (most of the time – see my email post). I know that I care.

It’s the thought that counts after all, isn’t it?