If you need an answer for something, never rely on email. It is great for "please review the attached doc and get back to me by Friday" (if followed up with a phone call before Friday) or "FYI" stuff. But it isn't a substitute for a phone call (which may still be shunted to voice mail), or a physical visit if the person is close enough.
Amen! The original blog entry is really about communication. Waiting for an email response is a poor use of the sender's time. People don't need to be married to the communications culture of the organization (e.g., use email for everything). I once had my performance appraisal emailed to me. I read this morning that 500 Radio Shack employees were sent an email advising them that they were laid off.
Most people have forgotten the art of human communication. Humans of all types are at the other end of an email, voice call or face-to-face. Use what makes sense and you'll not need to wait for a response.
Email is ubiquitous because 1) its Internet standards-based, 2) a basic system is cheap, 3) send and receive actions are simple. However, human communication is complex. Therefore, the "email problem" will not be fixed with spam filtering, content filtering, archiving, RSS, categorization (tags, meta tags, foldering, policies, etc.), unified messaging, embedded presence awareness or desktop search. Senders want to relay information by a method that "works" for them and recipients want to receive information in a way that "works" for them. The media by which the information is sent is irrelevant. Pick your technology of choice. If it works for you, cool. But don't confuse innovative technology with problem-free universal adoption.
Slashdot Mirror
Email is ubiquitous because 1) its Internet standards-based, 2) a basic system is cheap, 3) send and receive actions are simple. However, human communication is complex. Therefore, the "email problem" will not be fixed with spam filtering, content filtering, archiving, RSS, categorization (tags, meta tags, foldering, policies, etc.), unified messaging, embedded presence awareness or desktop search. Senders want to relay information by a method that "works" for them and recipients want to receive information in a way that "works" for them. The media by which the information is sent is irrelevant. Pick your technology of choice. If it works for you, cool. But don't confuse innovative technology with problem-free universal adoption.