Module 2

“The tasks for this module consist of a series of explorations of various forms of online communication.”

Content

Email Tasks. 1

Deconstruct an Email 1

Cc, Bcc & Reply to All 2

Using Cc. 2

Using Bcc. 3

Using Reply to All 3

Attachments. 3

Rules. 3

Folders. 4

Email Lists. 4

Pros and Cons. 4

Discussion Boards. 4

Pros and Cons. 4

Email Lists & Discussion Boards Comparisons. 5

Chat Task. 5

I did manage a small chat! 5

Group Task. 5

Extra Personal Experience. 5

Email Tasks

Deconstruct an Email

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?”

I took the information from an email my wife sent me from yahoo.co.uk to my work email address. From this I can see the following email metadata/headers.

Metadata	Description
Received: from ***.***.com.au (10.122.40.76) by awesch02.***.****.au (10.12.32.229) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 8.1.291.1; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:46:49 +1100	This shows the Outlook Exchange server that received the mail on my behalf
Return-Path:	Shows how to respond to this email (senders address)
Received: from [116.50.58.190] by [10.122.40.76] with StormMail ESMTP id 56998.950239096; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:55:15 +1100 (EST) Received: from web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com (web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com [217.146.177.178]) by rly09m.srv.mailcontrol.com (MailControl) with SMTP id mB40kilv019118 for ; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 00:46:46 GMT Received: (qmail 24363 invoked by uid 60001); 4 Dec 2008 00:46:42 -0000	Shows the path the email took to get here
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.co.uk; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:References:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID; b=IxRd1Zpu6Z1muoZOLJoQQsZz+qWjpcQc/7ah6xhL4kjrIo6Y7bWhNpLBmH 7finmw1PfnYjPohVQDC9WVlZO98lV7G3d55KYZfWnJb0Zw9z6dMa+r0OGlJK a7JOUUS1lsnDkBddTCMHErE2F1qCdRidZtIiUW42J+NhTjXVscm3k=;X-YMail-OSG: ZZqeQxYVM1nAmDkRT5X1Dq5IzmokHAnOqGfC8DdLl1ummn2hXyO9MLEK 1iipRA6sdqAtGlM41qaO6JIz9nygfbM5qwEv9x85mawxoKo8mMBTKw.Y2Xr_RB Jpo9mY4OWjdi2a6UAvE8HL7msBqUUF7unfTceXQmMXu.gFXeoSDmtkLc0-Received: from [121.217.143.212] by web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:46:42 GMT X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/1155.32 YahooMailWebService/0.7.260.1References: <08ff9f030b5ac3428e83ddeb24b45c3b35b9695a1f@awmail.****.com.au> <482415.35747.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <08ff9f030b5ac3428e83ddeb24b45c3b35b9695a51@awmail.****.com.au> Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 00:46:42 +0000	The DomainKey is the sender authentication certificate information, in this case the following information was sent in this email, this email containts the following headers.
Header	Description
From: Non Blonde <****@yahoo.co.uk>	Senders Address
Subject: Re: Hotel	Subject of email
To: Keith ****	My address
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1933541526-1228351602=:24192"	Content type and MIME version
Message-ID: <495014.24192.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>	Yahoo's message ID so this email can be tracked
X-Mailcontrol-Inbound: DrF2jmRCQeA4fyE dFQMuw3PsnAW5+aCI5C4 VsUb3x5xAm!pCPuofWt7vmlLxU6jX X-Spam-Score: -6.1 X-Scanned-By: MailControl A_08_51_00 (www.mailcontrol.com) on 10.77.0.119 X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: 0	Spam/Virus filter report

Cc, Bcc & Reply to All

2. “In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?”

Using Cc

I use 'cc' in an email when I want to include other people in an email but I don't necessarily want a reply from them. That’s the most basic way to use 'cc' and in my opinion the reason why it's there. People can use 'cc' for various other things, but it gets dangerous when you use 'cc' in various situations where it can cause problems with the interpretation of the use of 'cc'. For instance if you 'cc' a persons manager in an email thread that has already been active for a while, even though your intentions may not be that bad, the receiver of the email can get upset.

Using Bcc

I would use 'bcc' if I wanted to do a quick email to a bunch of people but I didn't want them to know who I sent the email to. I sometimes 'bcc' myself so that I can have a copy in my sent folder. It is also good to use 'bcc' if you want to include somebody in a business email, but you know that some people on the email may be sensitive to that person seeing the email, this has some dangers too though, especially if the person you bcc’d replies and then puts the other people in their 'to' or 'cc' fields.

Using Reply to All

I use the 'reply all' feature carefully, mainly when I am sure that the people on the email thread are ok about getting a response to the email. The 'reply all' button is probably the most dangerous button in the world, many people have been fired for saying something silly to the whole company without knowing it, this is so dangerous that some email systems don't allow you to reply all to certain lists of people.

In general I tend to scan the people in the 'To', 'Cc' and 'Bcc' fields in an email more than once, especially if I know it is a sensitive email. Sometimes simple typos or auto-spelling of names can leave you in a position where a sensitive email has gone to the wrong person. The Internet is full of horror stories where whole lives have been ruined in this way.

"Check and double check each person on your email distribution list before you hit the 'reply' or 'reply-all' buttons" - Me

Attachments

3. “In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?”

I think about the person I am sending the attachment to, if I know that they are computer savvy and have all the required software to view this attachment then I am not so fussy about what I send as an attachment because I am confident that they will know what to do with it. If however I am not sure about the person’s ability to view what I send then I will think about what attachments I am sending. For instance if it's a zipped/archived file then I may decide to unzip it and send it separately, if it's an embedded link/URL, I will mention that they have to click or copy and paste it into a browser. I am also aware of what information I can send through spam and email filters, so I am careful not to send executables or other files that alert filters to these types of mailboxes.

Rules

4. “What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?”

It depends on the email account your talking about, in my company I use a Microsoft Exchange system with Outlook. In this case I have filters and rules setup to push emails into various folders depending on the senders company/department/project and I rely on my email program to help me housekeep. I like to push the emails into 'personal' folders that are located on my local disk drive, and back this file up regularly to me network drive space. At home I am not so fussy, I use yahoo mail and I find it quite easy with the new yahoo user interface to maintain my inbox manually by moving emails into required folders for archiving.

Folders

5. “How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?”

As per my last point I use folders to store emails that have a common theme. So I have various folders for family and friends, but I also have business folders that can be broken down to the project level, project level email folders are harder to maintain with automatic filtering of data into respective folders based on the sender or spotting words, because as projects close the filters need to be updated. I like using folders in conjunction with filtering email into the respective folders, I find this is the most useful way to use folders. It is also good to have folders so it makes it easier to archive bunches of related emails.

Email Lists

I can't say I have had a great experience with Email lists, I see them as a bit of a nuisance if managed or used wrong and in lots of cases they are used for the wrong purposes.

Pros and Cons

“What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?”

Pros

• I guess they could be good if you don't have access to the Internet but still wanted information or to take part in a group.
• They are also quite useful in corporations when the company wants to send information to a large number of people.

Cons

• The inflexibility to show creativity with the format of the information that is provided.
• The reliance on an administrator to manage the content, whereas discussion boards can be self managed by the users.
• The non-secure nature of Emails could also be a concern.

Discussion Boards

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The flexibility of the administrator/owner to add graphics, spruce up the layout and make the content appealing is an advantage.
• The ability to let the users maintain and add content is a big plus, that’s where the Internet shines.
• The ability to search and find information quickly and easily also is a huge plus.
• Can be used for a wide range of applications

Cons

• The content is open to abuse unless actively monitored and vetted by an administrator.
• There are a lot of them and its not always easy to find the right board for your topic
• It often encourages people to rant long and hard about subjects that are not important

Email Lists & Discussion Boards Comparisons

“Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?”

Yes there are, I see Email lists as an information supply and that’s what they are good at, especially for people who are not that Net savvy. This communication is often one-way and that’s good in this case, so it has limited use. Discussion boards are very useful for applications where customers are reviewing products, discussing issues, or even internally in a company to encourage information flow from one person or group to another.

Chat Task

This was by far the most difficult task for me to complete successfully. I have to admit, I don't like chat programs, I rarely ever use them, after originally being excited about the concept and one of the first users of chat programs I have grown weary.

I did manage a small chat!

I got together with Natalie Spa for a brief chat on YahooChat on the train into work. But it didn't get to be a long chat about the course. Natalie also introduced another NET11 student to me by sharing my chat id with him, but I haven't seen him on online since then. Further update is that we did get to chat a small amount after this, but it was more to do with trying to arrange more official chats rather than anything else, but it was an interesting experience all the same.

Group Task

I still intend to get involved in a group chat, I see that there is one on Mondays, and I will install the chat program this week and make sure I attend that group meeting...more to come here…I did manage to get onto a small chat group on Monday, but my wireless broadband connection kept dropping out on the train. From what I seen of the 10 minutes I participated I felt it was very useful, if a little hard to follow and contribute with a dodgy connection. A consistent connection to the Internet for the duration of a chat is something that you need, and in this case I didn’t have that luxury so I found it a little frustrating as I tried to chat my comments were sometimes appearing 5 minutes after they should have.

Extra Experience

I designed and developed a chat program about 14 years ago, as part of my job at a company called Cylon Controls in Ireland. I decided to add this feature to a program that I was working on as part of a Building Management System (or Process Control system). This chat program didn't use internet protocols. It used a native data transfer system on the control systems we used. The main interface was a Visual Basic program that I wrote, the user interface communicated with control systems on site, in real-time through a connection to the control system hardware. The communication between chat programs actually travelled across the custom made control systems and not the Internet. The lag in communication was less than a second and it had a small amount of use in the industry. I think the engineers were not ready for chat yet :-).