Found Objects as collected by John Lawlor :: business blog marketing consultant ::

:: BlogAnswerMan :: Blog About Blogs :: Random Interests Blog :: Online Marketing Blog ::

>

Saturday, October 18, 2003

>

Wireless Email Use Increases Corporate Productivity

 

A Study by The Radicati Group, "Enterprise Wireless Email Market Trends, 2003-2007," Shows That Wireless Email Access has Increased the Amount of Time That Employees Can Put Into Their Work

Research indicates that employees using wireless email will have put in an extra 55 minutes of work per day.

"In a world where time is of the essence, and an increasing number of tasks are mission-critical, wireless email and other soon-to-come applications will pave the way for a truly global mobile business landscape." , says Sara Radicati

Email is only one tool. We can also use IM and SMS for short messages, telephone and voice mail when we are on the move and shared workspaces for complex and rich communications. Robin Bloor examined all messaging options.


[Smart Mobs]

>

POLLARD'S NAIVE PROPOSAL TO SAVE E-MAIL

 

chart
T
here's a great debate in the blogosphere and among technologists about whether e-mail, much disparaged as the cause of productivity-sapping information overload, and a lightning rod for relentless and overwhelming spam merchants, is toast. Detractors say it is unrescuable, an inefficient use of time and an ineffectual means of communication. Supporters say it is the inevitable and powerful successor and replacement for snail mail, and must be redesigned to solve the problems that are preventing it from doing its critical job, which is (as shown on the chart above, from my earlier post) -- ubiquitous, fast, free 1-to-1 (or 1-to-a-few) (but short, non-critical, non-iterative) written communication.

Like Clay Shirky, I love e-mail, warts and all. Some of the things that e-mail has allowed me, and those in my communities, to accomplish that no other medium could have achieved:
  1. Strengthened relationships and improved dialogue with readers of our Salon blogs.
  2. Pressured the Canadian government to fundamentally change its position on several key matters such as the Kyoto Accord.
  3. Enabled readers of my genealogy site to contact and exchange critical information with me.
  4. Enabled me to conduct targeted surveys of Salon bloggers.
  5. Enabled my high-school graduating class to organize an amazingly successful reunion.
  6. Helped establish and strengthen communication and collaboration among many loosly-knit communities of which I am a member.
So I want to save e-mail. I think we need to either fix the problems plaguing e-mail (info overload, spam and abuse), or develop a substitute tool that fills the void its demise would leave.

I think a possible answer to spam and info overload is a simple concept I call transient subdomains. Here's what I mean by this term:

What do we do now when we get too much spam in a mailbox? We trash it and set up a new one. It's a one-step-ahead-of-the-enemy approach, but it's extravagent. Suppose instead of just assigning people an e-mail address, we assigned them an e-mail domain, with the ability to set up an infinite number of subdomains (or channels, if you prefer), each with a short and finite life.

Example: Let's say my e-mail address is dave.pollard@hotmail.com (it isn't -- I use my real e-mail address sparingly in public because of spam etc.) Instead of junking this address when the spammers overwhelm it, suppose instead I had an e-mail domain: dave.pollard@hotmail.com/ and could create any subdomains I want, and abandon them when they've lost their value.

So for example right now I'm interested in people's opinions on my novel-in-progress. With transient subdomains I could request them at 
dave.pollard@hotmail.com/WhatCouldBe. And I occasionally help out Mark Hoback by co-editing Virtual Occoquan, the online periodical, and I would be able to communicate with potential authors of the next edition at dave.pollard@hotmail.com/VO28.

And I'm collaborating on some Social Networking and Social Software developments with a small group of people in two distinct communities (one consisting of people I regularly meet in person, the second of people I've never met but who have expertise the first group lacks), so I could communicate with them under the subdomains
dave.pollard@hotmail.com/SocialNet1 and dave.pollard@hotmail.com/SocialNet2.

Not only do I think transient subdomains could save e-mail from lamentable extinction, I think the same concept applied to phone numbers could save us from telemarketers as well.

OK, I'm done. I told you it was a naive proposal. Now I'm looking to those that understand the technical workings of e-mail and telephony to tell me whether it could work, technically. And for the twisted minds out there to tell me how the spammers could get around it.

[How to Save the World]

>

WHAT THE BLOGOSPHERE NEEDS MORE OF (UPDATE)

 

salon curve
S
everal months ago I published a list of What the Blogosphere Needs More Of. It was one of my most commented-on posts, and I promised to update the list based on readers' suggestions and additional ideas, and permanently post it on my sidebar. I'm putting it on the right sidebar, since there is more room there. I hope it will be useful to those stuck for something to write about, or wondering why some posts, and some blogs, are vastly more popular than others. Please note that this is a list of content that bloggers want to see more of. If you want to see a list of what blogging tools are most sought-after, that's here.

Blog readers want to see more:
  1. original research, surveys etc.
  2. original, well-crafted fiction
  3. great finds: resources, blogs, essays, artistic works
  4. news not found anywhere else
  5. category killers: aggregators that capture the best of many blogs/feeds, so they need not be read individually
  6. clever, concise political opinion (most readers prefer these consistent with their own views)
  7. benchmarks, quantitative analysis
  8. personal stories, experiences, lessons learned
  9. first-hand accounts
  10. live reports from events
  11. insight: leading-edge thinking & novel perspectives
  12. short educational pieces
  13. relevant "aha" graphics
  14. great photos
  15. useful tools and checklists
  16. précis, summaries, reviews and other time-savers
  17. fun stuff: quizzes, self-evaluations, other interactive content

Blog writers want to see more:
  1. constructive criticism, reaction, feedback
  2. 'thank you' comments, and why readers liked their post
  3. requests for future posts on specific subjects
  4. foundation articles: posts that writers can build on, on their own blogs
  5. reading lists/aggregations of material on specific, leading-edge subjects that writers can use as resource material
  6. wonderful examples of writing of a particular genre, that they can learn from
  7. comments that engender lively discussion
  8. guidance on how to write in the strange world of weblogs


[How to Save the World]

Recent Posts from
Blog Answer Man
 5/27/03
 5/24/03
 4/25/03
 4/7/03
 4/2/03
 3/21/03
 3/10/03
 3/10/03
 3/5/03
 3/3/03
 2/28/03
 2/26/03
 2/25/03

Recent Posts from our
Blog about Blogs
 7/17/03
 6/22/03
 6/19/03
 5/27/03
 5/27/03
 5/27/03
 5/27/03
 5/27/03
 5/27/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/26/03
 5/25/03
 5/25/03
 5/23/03
 5/19/03
 5/16/03
 5/2/03
 4/30/03
 4/30/03
 4/29/03

Recent Posts from
John Lawlor's Random Interests Blog
 11/25/03
 11/25/03
 11/25/03
 11/2/03
 10/18/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 10/11/03
 8/26/03
 8/25/03
 8/25/03
 7/25/03
 7/25/03
 7/14/03
 7/11/03
 6/25/03
 6/25/03
 6/22/03
 6/20/03