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TRANSCRIPT
ELECTRONIC MAIL
AND ITS IMPACT ON PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
by
Wayne E. Pauli
Capella University Doctoral Learner
A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements of
SC501 Survey of Research in Societal and Cultural Change
September, 2002
Address: 805 North Olive Avenue
City, State, Zip: Madison, SD 57042Phone: 605-256-5800E-mail: [email protected] Karla GableMentor: TBD
Abstract
After a 40 year development cycle, there is hardly an aspect
of one’s life that is not changing or has not changed due to
the technology of the Internet and specifically electronic
mail (e-mail). With the advent of what we know as e-mail in
1961, and the personal computer in 1981, the wheels have
been in motion for change. Some change has been gladly
accepted, while other change is unpopular and costly to the
economy. Various schools of thought exist over the methods
and modes by which a user becomes a catalyst or agent for
change. There is one item that all sides can agree on, that
being for e-mail to be the positive change that all expect
and desire of it, the human element of communication must be
present.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ii
List of Tables (if tables used) iii
Introduction 1
Electronic Mail Defined 1
Origination of Electronic Mail 3
Positive Results from Electronic Mail 5
Negative Results from Electronic Mail 8
Change that has Occurred 13
Electronic Mail in the Educational Setting 15
Conclusion 19
Resources 21
ii
List of Tables
Table 1: Categories of Spam August 2002 8 - 9
Table 2 Signs of Spam 10
Table 3 Ten (10) Guidelines to better e-mails 11 - 12
Table 4 E-mail ranking in specific categories 17
Table 5 Common Sense Guideline of e-mail 20
iii
Electronic Mail and its Impact on Personal Communication
After a 40 year development cycle, there is hardly an aspect
of one’s life that is not changing due to the technology of the
Internet and specifically electronic mail (e-mail). (Henderson,
2001)
Personal computers and the Internet have saturated over 60%
of U.S. households with almost 100 percent of families with
incomes of over $75,000 being online. (cyberatlas.com, 2002)
The proliferation of online surfers is due in a large part to the
fact that e-mail is the most popular choice of users.
(whatis.techtarget.com, 2002)
How did this modern day phenomena develop, and how has it
changed the act of personal communication? These questions are
addressed throughout this paper.
Electronic Mail Defined
According to Elizabeth Rennie, writing for suite101.com,
“Email is changing your relationships.” She challenges e-mail
users to think back over the past week and to physically count
the number of conversations that transpired via this application.
(Rennie, 2002)
Perhaps the question of what exactly is e-mail should be
answered. According to the Institute for Telecommunication
Sciences (ITS) which is the research and engineering branch and
part of the United States Department of Commerce, electronic mail
(e-mail) is defined as, “an electronic means for communication in
which (a) usually text is transmitted, (b) operations include
sending, storing, processing, and receiving information, (c)
users are allowed to communicate under specific conditions, and
(d) messages are held in storage until called for by the
addressee.” (its.bldrdoc.gov, 2002)
E-mail is one of the protocols included in the Transport
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols.
A protocol is a rule of operation of the Internet. The Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used in sending the
communication, and the Post Office Protocol (POP3) is used to
receive the transmission from the sender. (whatis.techtarget.com,
2002)
Ms. Rennie goes on to state that according to a survey
completed in 2002 by Xerox, that more than 50 percent of workers
in the office environment would rather share knowledge via e-
mails than through personal face-to-face contact. (Rennie, 2002)
E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet, and it is
still the most popular use of the Internet by people of all ages.
In fact, according to CyberAtlas.com, e-mail and its spin-off
application, instant messaging are the communication tools of
choice by American teenagers. (cyberatlas.com, 2002)
Origination of Electronic Mail
During his early professional career, Thomas Van Vleck was a
systems programmer and manager of systems analysis at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Compatible
Time-Sharing System (CTSS) was begun at MIT in 1961. CTSS is the
precursor to Electronic Mail, in that via a main frame computer,
multiple users could log on, and place in files messages to other
users. (Van Vleck, 2002) These messages could be opened and read
at any time, and responses were completed by saving messages into
other participant’s files, or what was called unofficially the
user’s Mail Box.
Van Vleck was a new programmer on the staff at MIT, and
partnering with co-worker Noel Harris, in the summer of 1965,
created the Mail command. This command created the ability to
tell a user when they logged in to the main frame whether they
had new postings in the Mail Box file. (Van Vleck, 2001)
MIT continued to work with CTSS, refining it, adding
functionality, and streamlining the process. In 1968, J.C.R.
Licklider, who at one time was the Director of the Advanced
Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) for the Department of
Defense, and at this time was a professor of Electrical
Engineering at MIT, published his manuscript titled, “The
Computer as a Communication Device.” The premise of this paper
was that the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) with its mail
command should be implemented into all machines on the ARPANET so
that they could communicate with each other. (Bennahum, 2000)
Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Massachusetts computer scientist
working at Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols School is quite often
credited as the inventor of e-mail, but, his contribution in 1972
was that of writing a program that allowed the “@” to be utilized
when addressing the message on the ARPANET. Prior to this, the
characters “-at” were used. (Van Vleck, 2001)
The following year (1973) found the TCP/IP protocols being
designed, and from a historical perspective the first famous
people to use e-mail were Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and Queen
Elizabeth, in 1976. (infoplease.com, 2002)
Thirty-three years after MIT began CTSS, the White House had
a web site, and mass marketing campaigns were launched via e-mail
on the Internet. Yes, “spam” became part of the Internet
vocabulary. This was followed at the turn of the century with
viruses circulated via e-mails that threatened to shut down the
Internet. (infoplease.com, 2002)
It is projected that at present there are over 164 million
Americans utilizing the Internet, with the number swelling to in
excess of 544 million users worldwide. A Neilsen Net Rating
found that 90% of adults use e-mail. (Rennie, 2002)
From an idea in 1961 to the major communication tool of
2000, e-mail mailboxes now are estimated at more than 505 million
worldwide, with projections of 1.2 billion boxes by year end 2005
(Pastore, 2001)
Positive Results from Electronic Mail
A JD Power and Associates study has demonstrated that even
with long distance telephone rates at all time low levels, their
importance as a communication network continues to be eroded due
to the technologies of wireless telephones, instant messaging,
and e-mail. (Woods, 2002)
The Gallop organization surveyed Internet users world wide,
and found that e-mail remains the number one activity for online
users, with over 50 percent of the people surveyed stating that
e-mail was their most common online activity. (Pastore, 2001)
Along with the growth in the sheer number of e-mail
mailboxes by 2005 to 1.2 billion as reported by Michael Pastore,
the 2005 estimates continue with a staggering estimate of the
number of e-mails being sent. According to the International
Data Corp., the world's leading provider of technology
intelligence, industry analysis, market data, and strategic and
tactical guidance to builders, providers, and users of
information technology, the number of person-to-person e-mails
sent on an average day is expected to exceed 36 Billion
worldwide. (Pastore, 2001)
According to Bryant Downey in his article of August 2002 in
Communication News, “e-mail is no longer a second-tier
communication channel. The question today is not whether e-mail
should be used, but how the user can benefit from its use.”
(Downey, 2002) Benefits of e-mail are really quite dependent on
the user, but the simultaneous delivery of the asynchronous
communication, which is much faster than ordinary mail service,
is among the benefits listed. (iit.edu, 2002)
The ability to retrieve, read, and reply to the mail
messages, at a person’s convenience, is delivered by one of four
options, which adds increased flexibility to the e-mail service.
The options are:
On the server
Which has the advantages of being able to read you e=mail
from any Internet-capable computer, and also the server can store
the messages. (iit.edu, 2002)
Using POP mail (Post Office Protocol)
This option includes the advantages of having a graphical
user interface, which is quite often easier to navigate. POP
allows the user to manage their e-mail on their own computer, and
there is a certain ease to attaching files to e-mails. The was
the original protocol as envisioned by Van Vleck and later
becoming the standard of the TCP/IP suite of protocols that set
the rules for e-mail.(iit.edu, 2002)
Using IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol)
Advantages of utilizing the IMAP option include: the ability
to read your e-mail from any Internet-capable computer (the same
as the first option, On the server), e-mails can be saved on the
server, it also has a graphical user interface and it handles
attachments easily as does the POP protocol. (iit.edu, 2002)
Using the World Wide Web
The advantages of this fourth option would be that of having
the ability to read the e-mail from any web browser, and the
ability to save the e-mails on a server. (iit.edu, 2002)
E-mail usage continues to grow despite the challenges from
new technologies such as instant messaging. It is growing at
both work and at home, with a typical e-mail user online seven to
eight hours each week at home, and 80% of e-mail users are in
continuous contact with their respective work related e-mail
accounts. (Pastore, 2001)
Negative Results from Electronic Mail
By the end of the year, 2002, it is estimated that a full
35% of all e-mails received will be unsolicited to mailbox
owners. The term for unsolicited e-mails is “spam”. As the
number of mailboxes increase, so does the proliferation of spam
messages according to a Jupiter Research study. (Greenspan, 2002)
BrightMail, one of the leading developers of anti-spam
detection software, and boasting a 45 percent share of the market
estimates that more than 5 million unique spam attacks were
unleashed in the month of August 2002. BrightMail also stated
that the spasm could be placed in nine distinctive categories.
Table 1 – Categories of Spam August 2002
Category Percentage
Financial Marketing 33
Product-oriented messages 31
Pornography 11
Table 1 – (continued)
Health 5
Spirituality 3
Business Scams and pyramid schemes 3
Leisure related messages 2
Internet / computer related 2
Miscellaneous 10
(Greenspan, 2002)
In a PC World article, it was estimated that e-mail account
holders receive on the average 750 pieces of spam mail per year,
and it is estimated that this will increase to over 1500 by the
year 2006. (Tynan, 2002)
Spam costs businesses from $8 to $10 billion dollars
annually. Major internet service providers feel the cost of spam
most keenly. All have suffered spam floods that overloaded their
servers and shut down subscribers' e-mail service. ISPs, in turn,
pass the cost of fighting spam to consumers in the form of higher
access fees. One company, Monsterhut, sent over 440 million e-
mails last year. Spam may be annoying, offensive, expensive, and
a waste of resources, but it's generally not illegal. There's no
federal statute regulating bulk e-mail, and while 24 states have
some form of antispam legislation, only Delaware bans spam
outright. (Tynan, 2002)
There are 7 signs of Spam that a user can be on the lookout
for, they are:
Table 2 – Signs of Spam
Topic Definition
Phony Subject line Random characters can fool filtering software. Other spam just tries to fool you--"re: your order" is especially modish.
Dictionary Spam If a message's "To:" field is crowded with e-mail addresses containing names similar to yours, you've got dictionary spam, where spammers send messages to every address that looks like yours at several different e-mail domains.
Spurious Content If an e-mail says you can get rich working from home while enlarging your breasts, it's spam.
Bogus unsubscribe links Legitimate marketers honor unsubscribe requests. Spammers (at worst) use them to verify your address and send more spam.
Secret Scripts Some HTML spam contains JavaScript that launches your browser and loads a page, often with ads from porn sites.
Fake return address Most bulk e-mailers can generate random false return addresses--sometimes even using your own e-mail address.
Forged headers Spammers falsify routing headers--the
breadcrumb trail left by mail servers as e-mail passes through--to hide their location.
(Tynan, 2002)
Spam bots constantly work the Internet selecting e-mail
addresses. The addresses are then sold to the spam companies for
the onslaught of e-mail traffic. Spam is chewing up the
bandwidth and the central processing unit drive space. (Wright, &
Daniels, 2002)
An issue separate from the Spam issue is that of an
asynchronous communication such as e-mail lacking the
interactivity of synchronous communications such as telephone and
face-to-face communication. Andrea Poe, writing in HRMagazine
states that e-mail has introduced more communication problems in
the workplace. The problems stem from lack of etiquette and the
lack of rules pertaining to e-mail correspondence. (Poe, 2001)
E-mail is a hybrid of sorts, it is somewhere between a
telephone call and a letter. It lacks the interaction of a
telephone conversation, and it is not as formal as a letter. It
must have its own set of rules. (Poe, 2001)
Table 3 – Ten (10) Guidelines to better e-mails
Item Topic
1. Do not use the inbox as a catchall folder
2. Agree on company acronyms
3. Send group mail sparingly
Table 3 – (continued)4. Ask to be removed from distribution lists that are not
needed
5. Use the “Out of Office” feature whenever possible
6. Before sending an attachment make sure the recipient will be able to open it
7. Avoid sending attachments and graphics to people on the road
8. Be specific and helpful
9. Collect what you have to say in one e-mail rather than sending one message per thought
10. Respond to your messages as quickly as possible
(Poe, 2001)
W. Eric Martin of Psychology Today states in his article in
the November / December 2001 issue that the only thing that can
be ascertained by reading an e-mail is what the gender of the
author is. Research has established that women are more likely
to ask questions, make self-denigrating comments and reference
emotions, while their male counterparts will issue more opinions,
and submit messages with more insults and grammatical errors.
(Martin, 2001)
A study was conducted by Rob Thomson, PhD, and Tamar
Murachver PhD demonstrated this, when 35 subjects correctly
identified the sex of the author of non-gender specific e-mails
more than 90% of the time. (Martin, 2001)
Change that has Occurred
E-mail has become as common today as the 3M sticky note,
the telephone answering machine, and the special occasion
greeting cards. Some people use it often and seem to find new
opportunities to use it even more. Others hesitate when faced
with this communication tool, and how it threatens the way people
communicate. (Adria, 2000)
The change in communication as a channel has been researched
by John Carlson of Baylor University, and Robert Zmud of the
University of Oklahoma, with the underlying issue being, “whether
people’s perceptions of e-mail would be influenced by their
knowledge of and experience with it.” (Adria, 2000)
Statistics recited by Grapham T.T. Molitor, in his article
entitled 5 forces transforming communications, show that in 1999
e-mail volume exceeded regular mail volume by 10 to 1, and that
e-mail had become a regular and routine part daily activity for
over 80% of all U.S. households. (Molitor, 2001)
The telecommunications industry believes according to
Molitor that technological improvements, which include e-mail
create quality of life improvements for its users. But,
Margaret Wheatley in her book, Turning to one another: Simple
conversations to restore hope to the future, says human
conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the
conditions of change. (Wheatley, 2002)
Within the two schools of thought lies the dilemma, not of
whether change is occurring, but rather, how is it occurring and
to what degree are individuals influenced by their knowledge
gained in usage of e-mail as opposed to knowledge gained by
perceptions obtained through conversations prior to use. (Adria,
2000)
Carlson and Zmud explored numerous types of knowledge to
help e-mail users communicate, and to supposedly hold more
positive attitudes toward the change of communication mediums.
Their study noted that through personal experience, a user
develops a greater satisfaction of the change, and finally that
a learning curve exists, and once a person uses e-mail a great
deal, they tend to see it as a good way to communicate. (Adria,
2000) These findings of the study support the position of the
telecommunications industry in that through use comes knowledge,
and with knowledge comes satisfaction, even without communication
as described by Margaret Wheatley.
Marco Adria also pointed out that the study allows a glimpse
in practical terms of how people perceive and are likely to use
e-mail. Yes, in fact perceptions based on other people’s
opinions and communication does positively impact the change of
both novice and experienced e-mail users. The study was
conclusively inconclusive as to which school of thought is the
catalyst for change in how we communicate, but rather that both
probably share the distinction of bringing change to personal
communication. (Adria, 2000)
Throughout this paper, the growth and importance of e-mail
has been duly noted. Author Jan McDaniel writing in the
periodical Link-up suggests that even though e-mail is
economical, and quick, and at times fun, that there are times
when a real voice on the telephone, or in person is necessary,
and that there are times when a printed letter delivered through
the postal channels is appropriate. We have undergone a positive
change in the communication arena and have embraced it very
quickly. But, it is cautioned, in some cases we are better off
making that contact the old-fashioned way. (McDaniel, 2000)
Electronic Mail in the Educational Setting
As far back as the early 1980’s, educators were confronted
with the issue that their industry was going to need reform, that
reform was imperative due to the advent of the IBM PC. (McCoy,
2001) The very item that made reform necessary would also be the
tool to lead the change, the personal computer. McCoy likened the
effort toward reform in the decade of the 80’s in education to
that of the pony express trying to regain its competitiveness
with the telegraph by breeding faster ponies.
Given the fact that little evidence of research existed in
the decades of the 80’s and 90’s concerning the computer
competencies needed by business teachers, Dr. McCoy completed a
Delphi study to ascertain the competencies necessary. (McCoy,
2001)
Twenty three panelists took part in this study, they came
from all geographic areas of the United States, eleven were male
and twelve were female, all panelists held terminal degrees, with
thirteen of them holding EdD’s, and ten of them PhD’s. From a
college rank, nine were full Professors, eleven were Associate
Professors, and three were Assistant Professors. (McCoy, 2001)
The entire study was conducted via e-mail, originating from
Moorhead State University in Moorhead Kentucky. Given the fact
that this study began in 1999, and that it was conducted in its
entirety via e-mail, the results demonstrate that e-mail was
ranked very high for continued academic development in college
curricula. (McCoy, 2001)
The panel began with 503 statements, which were consolidated
and ultimately yielded 105 statements that represented the
collective views of the 23 faculty members. The next step was
categorizing the statements into hardware, software, programming,
and integration areas of concentration. Then finally, the panel
applied a 5-point likert scale to each of the 105 statements,
with 1 being not important, 2 that the item was somewhat
important, 3 that the item was moderately important, 4 that the
item was important, and 5 that the item was very important.
(McCoy, 2001)
Table 4 – E-mail ranking in specific categories
Category Rank Comments
Hardware Computer Competencies Needed by Business Teachers in the 21st Century
4/ 105 In the year 2001, business education teachers should be able to demonstrate the ability to use E-mail and voice-mail hardware
Software Computer Competencies Needed by Business Teachers in the 21st Century
18/ 105 In the year 2001, business education teachers should be able to use local and wide-area communications networks for E-mail, group communications, and access to external information sources.
Integration Computer Competencies Needed by Business Teachers in the 21st Century
2/ 105 In the year 2001, business education teachers should be able to use written skills appropriate to business contexts. These include using either paper or electronic communications systems
(McCoy, 2001)
While there is some fluctuation in the rankings of the three
categories in which e-mail was mentioned, it needs to be pointed
out that in all occasions, the median and mode scores were 5 out
of 5.
Barbara Minsky and Daniel Marin conducted a research project
using 163 faculty members in two colleges at Louisiana State
University in Baton Rouge, and among the many hypotheses that
their research tested and proved correct was the hypothesis that
a favorable attitude toward change and innovation is positively
related to e-mail use of faculty members. (Minsky & Marin, 1999)
The question may be posed that secondary and even middle
school education should have addressed the issue of e-mail, and
that the post-secondary level is not the place for such
education. According to Michael Drolet, writing in the July 2000
issue of Risk Management, education is not doing a credible job
on e-mail education, specifically in the area of Do’s and Don’ts,
and a very significant problem has arisen for businesses that
higher education needs to address. (Drolet, 2000)
Drolet specifically points to the following effects of poor e-
mail education:
68 percent of companies characterize messaging improprieties
as widespread, and according to Datamation, the average cost per
company is $3.7 million dollars annually.
55% of workers it is estimated exchange potentially
offensive messages at least monthly based on information gathered
from PC Week.
40 percent of workplace web surfing is not business related,
and over 70 percent of Internet port traffic occurs during the
nine-to-five workday.
21 percent to 31 percent of employees in the PC Week survey
admitted to sending confidential materials to recipients outside
the company.
E-mail and the Internet are extremely valuable tools for
business and education, but there are very real legal, security,
and productivity issues that stem from its use. (Drolet, 2000)
Conclusion
A great deal of information regarding electronic mail was
researched to complete this paper. There still remain two
opposite positions regarding e-mail and change. Those of
Margaret Wheatley, who states that, “human conversation is
necessary for change – personal change, community and
organizational change, and planetary change.” (Wheatley, 2002)
And then the findings by Minsky and Martin stating that “a
favorable attitude toward change and innovation is positively
related to e-mail use of faculty members”, which refutes the
position taken by Wheatley, but certainly the findings align well
with, and are comparable to the findings submitted by Carlson and
Zmud which state, “that a learning curve exists, and once a
person uses e-mail a great deal, they tend to see it as a good
way to communicate.”
Also throughout the research there seems to exist a common
theme concerning the issues of usage of e-mail. The theme is
that of ethics, and the need for proper if not formal education
on how to use e-mail. Mark D. Hansen writing in the journal,
Professional Safety, has authored the following common-sense
guidelines for proper e-mail usage:
Table 5 – Common Sense Guideline of e-mail
1. Think about who may read your message
2. Picture the recipient’s reaction to your message
3. Avoid beginning with criticism
4. Don’t send a message that you would be embarrassed to send to a family member
5. Make sure your message is not too cryptic
6. Check your messages for grammatical idiosyncrasies
7. Read and reread messages before sending them
8. Make sure your message is concise
9. Avoid cluttering others’ electronic space with non-urgent items that you could send via fax or regular mail
10. Don’t let e-mail become a substitute for in-person or phone conversations
11. Remember the human element in communication
(Hansen, 1999)
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