Lecture Eleven--ICS 131--Win 2000--14 Feb 00

Review of Lecture Ten

I. Ethics and Etiquette of Electronic Mail
 

A. Is E-Mail different than other forms of communication?

B. Sending E-mail

Using BCC (Reference 9)

 
 
C. Receiving and Responding

Jeff Bezos interview (Reference 2)

Q: What do you do to avoid being

completely deluged by e-mail?

A: Set aside some fraction of your

time as your own...

Later on--he uses e-mail

to learn what customers think

for thank you's--(JF thinks)

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II. "Computers, Networks, and Work"

Sproull and Kiesler

Scientific American, 1995
 

A. Network groups talked

more frankly, more equally

B. Network groups generated more ideas

C. Take longer to make a decision

D. More flaming

III. Some miscellaneous e-mail experiences
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Social Relations--E-mail two

 
 

Access

Matching

Matching engines

Cutting costs

 

 

I. Access
 

E-mail is Biggest Activity on Internet

Loss leader for ISP's--zero cost

Wireless e-mail appliance (Reference 5)

for those who need to be connected always

Two recent actions to increase usage

Organizational offerings

Free PC's

Organizational reactions to usage
 

 

 

Organizational offerings (NY Times, 13 Feb)
 

Ford Offering each of its 350,000 employees

A computer, printer, and unlimited access

for $5 per month

Delta, 80,000 employees, similar,

but not quite as generous

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Why is Ford doing this?
 

Increasing computer literacy

Some concern that Ford will use it

for other reasons, e.g.,

disseminate information to employees

get people to work from home

stifle anti-Ford messages
 

Free (or almost free) PC's
 
for signing up for internet service

for providing information
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Organizational restrictions on access (Reference 1)
 
"... 10% of the work force, were fired

for sending e-mail that violated standards

at the NY Times Co.'s business office

[in Norfolk, Virginia]."

employees had sent or forwarded

"potentially offensive e-mails"

  ----------------------------------------------------

NY Times had rules about e-mail:
 

"... computer communications must be

consistent with conventional standards

of ethical and proper conduct, behavior and

manners and are not to be used to create,

forward or display any offensive or

disruptive messages, including photographs,

graphics and audio materials."

 
Management Looked at files

Monitored e-mail

Why did this happen?

No likely employee defense

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II. Matching

One of the major goals of e-mail and

electronic communication in general is

matching
 

Matching customers with products

Matching people of like interests

Matching prospective partners

Cutting costs

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Dating sites (References 4 and 6)
 

Over 1200 on the Web

Valentine's day articles in LA Times and Time

Match.com has grown from

300,000 members in 1997 to

2.5 million today

100,000 active members

Why are dating sites so popular?
 

Really started in France

Honesty and frankness in e-mail

Old fashioned courting--talk, no touching

Beats single bars

AOL and gay chat rooms (Time sidebar)
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Auction sites
 

Retail

Business-to-business
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E-Communities

Etzioni article (Reference 7)
 

"Virtual communities cannot provide nearly

as much subtle and encompassing knowledge

of members as a real community. But they

can include many more people. One's strong

suit is depth, the other's is breadth."
 

 
 
"It seems that e-communities can reach the

highest level of intimacy only if all the

building blocks are in place:

the number of participants is kept

relatively small,

admission is controlled to foster affinity,

and people drop their internet masks."

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III. Matching engines (Reference 8)

"The software does a statistical analysis

of the seeker's interests or communication

style, then sallies forth in search of someone

who appears to be compatible."

Yenta--
 

"... is designed to introduce its users to other

like-minded people at no cost to privacy."

Yenta to Yenta communication

"Cobot analyses transcripts of user interaction

from a chat room in LamdaMOO, an onlin community

that wa created in 1990 at Xerox's PARC laboratory

and is still popular among computer programmers."

Users check with Cobot to find out about themselves.
 

IV. Cutting costs--an example

WWW publishing (LA Times, NY Times)

faster dissemination

Cut costs, e.g., thesis publication

  -----------------------------------

Social Relations--E-mail two

 
 

Access

Matching

Matching engines

Cutting costs

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Logistics

Final Schedule--Monday or Friday?

Lunch on Wednesday

JF's office hours

Monday--group

Tuesday--dental appt

Posting grades

Marx Lecture--

Reference 3--Dot-com firms lacking

in Black Execs--