Friendly Technology.........

Hey Tod Maffin: Email is Not Dead!

Two weeks ago, CBC tech reporter and overall good guy Tod Maffin posted an article on his Future File blog entitled "Why Email is Dead".

I must admit I have an entirely different view. Let me quote snippets from Tod's article with my thoughts added in:

"I knew there was a problem when I ran into my former business partner the other day. He was miffed. He had sent me an email about a potential opportunity and I'd ignored him. Only I hadn't. I just never got to read his email before my spam filter snatched it."

In my experience, spam filters work quite well. Products like Qurb and Choicemail seem to be leading the charge.  Most of the spam filtering products out there allow you to approve certain senders so that they never get caught in the spam filter. Maybe Tod hadn't talked to his former business partner in some time and, thus, had not added his former business partner to the approved email list. 

Spam filters still do mistakes. You still have to wade through email in a "suspected spam" folder to see if anything  had  been caught that should not have been.   I know Tod must get a lot of email - and I imagine a lot more than most people. And wading through his spam folder must be a pain. But, for the vast majority, this is a manageable task.

"As with the experience with my business partner, many business people aren't even seeing some of the emails they're meant to. People will rely less on email for important and speedy communication – the very thing it was invented to assist with."

Once you approve someone in your spam filter, important and speedy communication surely can take place through email.

"When you examine the way people use email, you can spot three distinct trends that signal email's looming decline.  The first is an under-reported technology known as XML. Most business-to-business (B2B) email exchanges today are remarkably simple – small orders, questions about their account, or other administrative bits."

I don't even understand XML all that well, and I teach technology for a living.  Tod suggests using XML as a way to link two companies' computer systems together  so that transaction happens automatically, rather than through email. In my view, this only works if the two companies have the technical understanding to set this up AND they have an ongoing relationship. Otherwise, email still works best.

WHAT'S NEXT?
For one, RSS ("Really Simple Syndication"), which first took hold as a way to easily distribute content from bloggers – people who post personal diaries on the Internet.... Also watch for Voice Over IP (VoIP) to revolutionize the way people communicate. Your email, phone calls, voicemail, faxes, and instant messages will all flow into a single "Communications Box

I think RSS only works as an email substitute when one uses it to get information otherwise contained in email newsletters or email mailing lists. For most personal (even business related personal) communication, I just don't see it happening.

The problem with VOIP(Internet Phone) is that it takes a lot of connection speed and space. It is not really easily searchable. One of the great things about written text is that is acts as a record of communication and you can find specific words and phrases more readily. We are not there with voice yet.

More on this topic:

• Infocult Blog - "Email is Dead"
• Email Universe Ezine - "Email is not Dead"

 

Turned on to Video Email by Nigel

Met many great people at Northern Voice. And many smart non techies. I had a great chat with Nigel (click on his name for his brand spanking new blog) just before the Intro to Blogging panel. Nigel works with new immigrants to Canada, helping them get settled into careers here.

I was quite impressed that Nigel uses video email to communicate with his clients. He uses a company called Talkway and he pays $4.99 for 2000 minutes of video email. The videos integrate right into an Outlook or Outlook Express email message or are available through a link within the message. Apparently, the service is dial up internet friendly.

Nigel tells me that he consistently gets great ratings at work. One of the reasons is likely that he is using technology to create a stronger relationship with his client. A plain text email always works, but it does not have the power of video.

It is always great to meet innovative people who use technology intelligently. Nigel was even kind enough to lie and say nice things about me on his blog.

I think I need to try Talkaway soon...

Talking to Dennis, Matt, and Brian at the NSBIA Tech Fair

Having a very nice chat with Brian from Interior Film Training
and Matt Kormendy from Aon Insurance... I am at the Kamloops North Shore Business Improvement mixer. Have been showing off my logitech notebook webcam - as you can see from the blurry photo above.

Blog Beginners at Northern Voice...

Had the opportunity to attend and participate in the NorthernVoice blogging conference in Vancouver this past Saturday.  I was not disappointed. Arriving early Saturday morning. I was reminded of the great responsibilities the organizers had taken on. I mean, they couldn't really let loose and truly enjoy the conference because they had to worry about so many things. I would catch Darren Barefoot peeking in and out of sessions I was attending, likely walking round all the sessions to check if all was well.  I want to again thank the organizing committee for all their hard and good work. The conference was stellar.

Quite a few interesting questions came up in the Intro to Blogging session, which I helped facilitate. One that comes to mind was whether blogs are more susceptible to getting or sending  viruses. This question took me by surprise, although it was a good question. Because blogs are a lot about linking, can someone linking to you or you linking to someone cause virus transmissions. I think participants might have been relating blog linking to sending and recieving email. All of us trying to answer questions came to a similar answer on this one. Your blog is no more sucseptible to virus infection than a normal web site.

Another question revolved around how to find interesting blogs. There was some discussion about blog recommendation sites. Mentioned most was Bloglines service but I think Bloglines is a little too difficult to use a a recommendation site. I suggested just typing in a search term into Google and then adding the word 'blog' at the end. I then would search the blogs that I found for links to other blogs. This practice has not failed me yet.

Anyhow, its getting late. Better sleep. More on NorthernVoice likely tomorrow.

Great Car Audio on a Total Shoestring

Spent some quality time with my wife today driving on the highway. We have a great time having indepth chats on various topics. She hasn't been with me on some of my longer drives. And that is when I turn to my low budget, very flexible car audio system. I could listen to a CD, but a better solution is to plug the device pictured below into my walkman or MP3 player:

The little cord on the Belkin tunecast (belkin catalog down, link to first avble google link)plugs into the headphone jack of virtually any portable music player (tape, Cd, digital, etc) and transmits the audio to an available frequency on any FM radio. Works like a charm, in my experience. Very useful.

The Demo Conference, Internet Explorer 7, and much more...

I am doing a little more reading about the Demo conference and the first update of Internet Explorer 7 in a long time - and I will be writing longer posts on these topics in the next few days.

For now, suffice to say the following:

• 677 comments and counting on the Microsoft Internet Explorer team's blog post about IE7.
• Demo is probably the leading conference to launch new tech products and services. The organizers are very selective about who they allow to participate. Some very cool stuff!
  Bonus Demo Blog link

Holding a Mac Mini....

I stole this picture from  a post on the Mac World Blog...

Our local library has one of the first Mac Minis sold in my town and I got a chance to take a first hand look. The first thing I noticed is the size. I mean, this thing has roughly the same dimensions as a 300 page hard cover book.  The next thing I noticed is the beautiful design - brushed metal, high end ?plastic? top plate.

Had a chance to see the Mac Mini start up as well. And the screen looked exactly like a bigger Mac's screen. I thought I read somewhere that the Mac Mini comes with a stripped down version of the Mac operating system - OSX, but I could not see a difference.

Another interesting point about the Mac Mini is that it has no screws holding it together. Apparently it uses clips to keep the top and bottom pieces together. The library folks took many deep breathes while jimmying the case open with putty knives in order to upgrade the memory.

Internet Phones (Voice over IP) start to grow up....

On my desk I have a phone connected through a small adapter to my Internet connection. The phone is a normal run of the mill phone I bought years ago. When I pick up the reciever, I get a dial tone and I can call any other phone in the world.

In fact the only thing that distinguishes this phone from one that is connected to the phone jack in my wall is the amazing deal I get on long distance and a great bundle of features.

The quality of my Internet phone is almost as good as my "normal" phone. No wonder the company that provides me the service is growing leaps and bounds.

There are drawbacks to theInternet phone. If the power goes, I have no service. A week ago, I got my first "junk mail" phone call.

I also wonder if this phone can get infected by a virus or penetrated by a hacker.

These problems could concievably stop this very promising industry dead in its tracks.

It is good to know that Internet phone providers are starting to take notice of the virus and hacker threat at the very least. They have started a Security Alliance to work on making their systems more secure.

Things I recently Learned from Non Techies

I recently taught a series of Internet related courses in conjunction with the good folks at the City of Kamloops Parks and Rec dept.  I feel very lucky to have this opportunity. I learn a lot from these people and the flow is definitely more two way.  One of the best suggestions, out of many good ones from my students, concerned icons on the windows desktop. Just why aren't these icons named more descriptively? Why does nothing appear in a little explanatory bubble when you run your mouse pointer over an icon?

This is an issue techies don't really think about. Heck, all our weirdly named icons often make us feel special.

Isn' t this better:

than this:

Here is how to change the latter icon to the former icon. Right click on the icon and then left click on rename.  After entering the more descriptive name, click enter. Voila!

Can't believe I just talked to Robert Scoble...

on.ca
It is very interesting how small and family like certain parts of the Internet are becoming. In the blogging world, I have been inspired by people like Robert Scoble. Robert is, in my view, the most important person at Microsoft. Through his blog, he has opened up incredible lines of communication between Microsoft and the rest of us (almost all who use Microsoft products).

Anyways, Robert Scoble is one of the human embodiments of the friendly technology mantra. He even publishes his cell phone number on his blog. The big deal for me is that I just called it and he called me back and we had a conversation. I don't know, I am a little stunned. It was like my favourite rock star calling me back.