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Feb 22, 2007

Reasons that makes email different from paper based communication

The turnaround time can be faster. So email is more conversational.

In a paper document it's essential to make everything unambiguous because recipients not have a chance to ask for clarification. But with email documents, your recipient can ask questions immediately.

Never you need to be so formal in an email to tell your co-worker that you are ready to go to lunch, and you never wouldn't do that on a paper letter.

Your correspondent also won't have normal status cues (such as dress or diction). So may make assumptions based on your name, address, and facility with written language.

Email also does not convey emotions nearly as well as face-to-face or even telephone conversations. It lacks vocal inflection, gestures, and a shared environment.

Your recipient often have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy or sad, frustrated or euphoric. Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use in email.

Another difference is that what the sender sees when composing an email might not look like what the reader sees. Your words tone only sound in your mind.

Your message's visual style may be quite different by the time it gets to someone else's screen. The software and hardware that you use for your emails may be different from what your recipient uses.

Feb 12, 2007

The potential for messy and costly e-crises is huge

Electronic disasters can ruin businesses, sink careers, send stock prices plummeting, and create public relations nightmares.

Don't let an "e-disaster" catch you off guard. For responsible organizations operating in the age of electronic communication and commerce, a written "e-policy" is an essential and savy business tool.

An "e-policy" that is well-written and effectively communicated to all employees is one of the best ways for employers to protect themselves from workplace lawsuits and other risks associated with the inappropriate use of corporate software, e-mail, and Internet systems.

Inappropriate e-mail can trigger workplace lawsuits claims. If a former employee subpoenas company e-mail in the course of a wrongful termination lawsuit, your organization could face a lengthy and expensive search for back-up e-mail messages.

In one case, a Fortune 500 company was ordered by a court to turn over any e-mail that mentioned the name of a former employee who was suing the company for improper termination.

With no policy in place for purging e-mail, the company faced the prospect of searching more than 20,000 back-up tapes, containing millions of messages, at a cost of $1,000 per tape. Total potential cost for that electronic search: $20 million.