Module 2 Tasks

Email tasks

Because Internet technologies for communication are so much more powerful in their ability to manipulate, transform and process data (a pen, for example, can’t store words as well as write them), information processing and communicative skills must be developed in concert.

1. What information about a user’s email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

By looking at the surface metadata (Data contained in the header of the message) I am able to understand who sent the email, who the email was intended for, time it was recieved by my email, the subject and urgency of the email, and has it been read or replied to. I am unsure atm how I can determine the path a users email has taken. I have downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird and will learn how to use it and hopefully from there I can work out an emails path.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the ‘cc’, ‘bcc’ and ‘reply all functions of email?

‘cc’ refers to carbon copy.. And as far as I can work out it refers to sending a copy of an email to more than one person.

‘bcc’ refers to a ‘blind carbon copy’ where you can send an email to a particular person and the same to another or many other recipients but these people do not know they are receiving the same emails.. It helps with efficiency and makes it more intimate for the recipient, they do not think they are reciving a bulk email that normally comes under the banner in my perspective as spam, jokes, useless and time consuming information that I rearly read..

Reply all, will send a message to all members on my email list including the original author and all those in the cc an bcc..

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

You need to be certain that the attatchment you are sending can be opened by a commonly used program ie windows media player, or adobe acrobat. Or if using a specific program that is not too common you will need to know or contact the recipient and ask them if they have the software or encoding to download the attatchment.

Alternativly you can use MIME (Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) by saving the intended attatchement as a MIME file. Which is now generally accepted as a common form of information sharing protocol that accepts many various applications ie. audio, visual, application programs. Thus most users will be able to open the attatchment easily.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I simply use a spam filter on my email addresses that i do not want emails from. And highlight spam messages when they come in, and this seems to work really well for me. I do not need to use many rules or filters atm as most emails I recieve are limited and easily read straight from the inbox. I however will attempt to re-arrange my email and conglomerate them all into outlook express or mozilla thunderbird..

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

I do not use any folders atm. My emails are relativly simple to read and reply from the inbox. But once i organise my different email addresses into outlook or mozilla then I will set up a folder for important messages that I can store information that I need occasionally. I will also put emails into sub groups ie friends and family, study, surfing etc..

I only use email once or twice a day but I am learning the significance of organisation and hope to use it more. Atm I log into 3 different accounts most days but I am now gettting an understanding for email use and efficiency..

Lists

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?

Email lists are useful because you can become a member of a group and automatically receive information from the group without having to search for the new information or replies to questions and answers that are specific to the email group list you are a member of. They sometimes can get out of control if you do not set rules for quantity or specific forms of information you want to read. They are also fairly impersonal so that can be a good and bad thing depending on your need.

Discussion Boards are relativly synchronous and provide an avenue for open free, and generally unlimited moderated communication. This platform can give people anonymity and freedom of speech (while still moderated for on topic and offenssive discussion), providing some very interesting information from people in all walks of life. It is a user beware environment, where as the email lists are more moderated, slower in communication time but more on topic.

I prefer the discussion boards as they are more live and many times sprout ideas and insights on and off topic that I can persue at a later date.

Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Deffinetly.. Lists are impersonal, direct on topic, don’t contain urgency and simple to read. Where as discussions are open free and more current and urgent. All depends on the person and if they want specific information delivered in a certain way.

For exp I am a member of an email worm farming list, which is always difinitive and on topic, delivered to my email for easy reading and does not require any input or output. And I am also currently a member of a discussion board with a specific topic regarding “Master Cleansing”, this discussion forum is always moving and needs constant monitoring to keep up with people and information, it is fresh and entertaining and I can share my thoughts and ideas with people who might need information in a semi urgent manner..

RE: the list I am able to set a rule that if a certain important email arrives I can be notified straight away by sms to my phone and if need be reply asap. Thus the list has the potential of being a quick and efficient communicating device.

Newsgroups

“One source of both information and communication is newsgroups. A newsgroup is a continuous public discussion about a particular topic.” Newsgroups are decentralized, which means that the messages are not maintained on a single server, but are replicated to hundreds of servers around the world.

Newsgroups are most effective when:

• You don’t need an immediate answer.
• You want to communicate with more than one person.
• You want to communicate with a group of people interested in the same topic.
• You need or want to provide extensive information about that topic.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm

I decided to join a newsgroup called “Resist – Excersie freedom of speech while you still can” an Australian group that is interesting and action implied.As I am new to the group and as suggested I will monitor the posts and in a couple days I will add my own. I signed up with a log in name so I can post and recieve emails from group members. The newsgroup is very open and free, expression is realativly unmoderated and it seems most users understand the theory of netiquette, with most information provided with biblographical references to back up particular statementsHere is the screenshot of my first post,,,, wed 13th JuneWell it will be here once I work out how to do it…

I have just logged in to the resist site and found 4 replies to my opening introduction(24 July 07). The only problem is as I opened up the topic replies a person has written in and pasted VERY large photos into the replies document. This has caused my PC to stall and freeze as it tries to present the photos. I cannot read any of the other replies as this process is taking up too much of my PC’s power. I had to shut down the site twice, but I will try again another time when I have no other programs open to read the other posts. But I  am happy there are posts and I’m really interested in viewing the replies.

To be continued..