I signed up for a yahoo email and set up some filters and folders. My email address is lulu.hunter@yahoo.com.au - I also took the email tutorial.
Here are my answers:
1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
From an email message, you can tell:
- the senders' email address which is usually composed of the user's name and the domain of the user eg (lulu.hunter@yahoo.com.au)
- the time the email was sent
- the subject of the email
- who else the email was sent directly to
- who else is going to receive a carbon copy of the email
- if it has any attachments.
You can also tell if it is:
- a reply to another email
- if it has been forwarded
- the path that it has taken, the return path and authentication details.
On Yahoo mail you can select a compact, standard or a full message header (pictured).
The body of the email will give you the message itself and may contain a signature and may also have other information – eg consider the environment before printing this email or a disclaimer.
A user needs to be aware that their original message may be forwarded because data is so easily transmitted and highly mobile. Because of the "tendency of the 'mobility of data' has become a cultural given" (concept 5), there are some issues such as lack of attention to the content, information overload and decreased ‘share of voice’ (eg there are so many other types of information messages vying for someone’s attention) can occur.
Information can be shared in more meaningful ways - (concept 5) eg a url with a brief description about what the user will discover if they select the link, more background as to why the info is being given (eg This will assist you with preparation of the monthly report) or actions required by your recipient.
Use To: to send the email directly to a persons’ email address. This is useful if you want to have a direct conversation with a person or set of people and assign any actions to them.
Use CC: (Carbon Copy) if you want to send a copy of your message to an email address. This is useful if you want to include more people in the message and it just for their information only – ie a manager may have asked you to send an email to a set of colleagues to update them about a particular project – CCing the manager in the email lets the manager know that you have completed the task.
It also lets all the recipients know who has been sent this information. CC’s are usually for information only (and not to assign actions).
Use BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) if you want to send a copy of your message to a particular email address, without any of the other recipients knowing that this email address has been included on the list. Recipients of the blind CC, may also receive any ‘reply all’ emails.
As it is so very easy to forward emails, (unless the original sender has used a function to prevent forwarding) people tend to give little thought or credence to the ‘value ‘of email. How many emails have you received that have been forwarded through several sets of people?
An email sender needs to include direct and clear instruction about the action or response that is either desired or required by the recipient. Some email programs (eg GroupWise) allow you to graphically represent some of these eg response required but you as the sender also need to make it very clear by your choice of words what your expectations are.
Empathise and make it easy for your users of email messages – eg by clever use of email subject headers. I have been practising this at work for the past week or so – indicting in the subject is action or just response is required. If I need something I have been including REQUEST in the title. I have had good response to this technique.
Effective emailing (and communications practise) needs an understanding of how an audience will use the information/ messages you send them. As there are different types of email – eg email marketing, social information or business correspondence, they all have having subtly different applications and intent.
A good communicator should also ask themselves (of sending an email) is this the most appropriate way to send this particular message?
Being aware and practising good netiquette ...”good or bad behaviour online” (concept 7) these are ‘agreed' behaviours will help your messages Becoming accultured to the internet and using email, learning its rules and expected behaviours is an important part of netiquette that will help you to communicate effectively. Empathy by users will ensure good communications practise.
You can
- Make sure that the file can be read by the recipient - you can confirm which systems they use or send in plan text if this is not possible.
- Compress or reduce the file size to as small as possible so the attachment is not blocked.
If they are not expecting it, a short description on what is contained in the attachment and why it is being sent is useful. (everyone is busy so they need to be convinced of the value of opening it)
With communications over the internet where people assume that everyone is the same (Concept 8).
Not everyone has the same level of expertise or experience with technology (eg novice or older users who may find adapting to technology challenging) as you. It is arrogant to assume this. People forget that there are differences in competence levels and so do not compensate for them.
Communications can lose much of their original content or impact when they are ’translated’ into other (different) formats. We should seek to communicate by ways that can be accessed for everyone (lowest common denominator) to make your message as readable and effective as possible for all users – eg the use of a text only message.
4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I have social email, work email and now educational email inboxes. In each I have different set ups as they are used for different purposes. Eg I have an automatic junk filter for social and educational (this is not something I have at work).
Automation of information processing allows time efficiency but may leave the user with the impression that the results may not be as reliable as possible (Concept 10).
I will experiment more with the filters concept as (apart from junk mail) is something I have really yet to explore.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
Many people now have at least 2 email addresses (social and corporate) and use them in very different ways. In my uni play email (a clean slate!) I have an admin folder for passwords, welcome messages etc. I also have a references folder. This is to store emails so I can reference info confined within them more effectively using metadata. I can be more efficient in handling info this way and may reuse data for actions not originally intended, eg as a template for future uses.
In my personal email I have wedding, uni, bookclub, baby, career, reference ( eg passwords welcome messages) folders.
My corporate email is the most complex of my email folder systems. Each current or work stream has its own folder, each year has a folder for all projects and I have an archive for each year, there are other administration type folders eg 'important/ keep for items such as managers emails, welcome messages from subscriptions.
To keep sets of information separate to able to search or organise more efficiently to be able to retrieve the info I need quickly.
The ability to store and re-use data means that is mostly saved without valuing it. Automation can assist with the by presetting or determining a future value of the info ( concept 12) eg all emails from Mr X can go straight to the to delete folder. Another way of coping with information overload.
Be conscientious about your email use while expecting little of others (concept 13) and you may find that people respond back to your emails. This also relates back to netiquette.
