“Exploring Alternatives to Emails” Series - Unsolicited Emails

Unsolicited Emails

 “Email fatigue” occurs when a user ignores a large number of email messages after falling behind in reading and answering them.” – Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University.

While the advent of email has forever changed our business models and methodologies for communication and marketing, the sheer volumes of unsolicited emails have given most of us cause to search for alternatives. In this segment, I will address the different types of unsolicited emails we are inundated with on a continuous basis, the how and why, and more importantly actions you can take to reduce each.  

“Ham” versus “Spam”

Spam, “junk mail”, or unsolicited bulk email (UBE) accounts for 78% of all electronic messages – that’s 229 billion spam messages sent out daily!  These “messages” are not only ubiquitous and unavoidable, but often even dangerous to the health of our computer / devices. These unsolicited bulk “messages” can and often do include links or attachments connecting us to phishing software and malware. Because spammers are able to collect our data from sites we visit, create viruses to harvest our contact lists often undetected, and more, it is virtually impossible to eliminate all spam. Today, the best methodology for defending yourself against spam is to empty the spam folder in your mailbox without opening or responding to the sender. Of course, that's if what is in your spam folder was properly categorized.

Phishing

Phishing is the attempt to “bait” you in order to obtain personal information from your virtual mailbox, computer and even wallet, most commonly: usernames, passwords, credit card and bank information. Most phishing occurs when we respond to spam “bait” with malicious links or attachments, taking us to a fictional website that prompts for personal information. As a rule of thumb, you should drive to your bank’s website. Phishing has been one of the many online sharks to avoid since 1995; banks and vendors will not send emails soliciting your personal information, as a result.  It is also important to use Tools – Delete Browsing – Delete Phishing Filter Data on a regular basis to ensure no doors have been left open in your mailbox.

Malware

Malware, short for malicious software, covers the gamut for codes, scripts, active content and other intrusive and hostile software created by hackers for the purpose of disrupting your computer function or hard drive, to gain access to your computer without your consent, and to obtain your personal information. Malware is most commonly known in the form of: viruses, worms, spyware and adware. The best defense to block these attacks remains anti-virus and anti-malware software, and firewalls. When in doubt, drag and drop to the spam folder, without opening, and empty the folder immediately. Regular scans and diagnostics of your computer are also affective for identifying, quarantining, and eliminating undetected malware and back doors.

Unsolicited Marketing Emails - “Subscriptions”

Just about every business has attempted to use their contact lists for mass marketing via electronic mail, much like snail mail in the 80s and prior. Often these emails account for a large chunk of the messages we consider an annoyance. While dealing with these individually requires times, it usually leads to a resolution. Valid commercial marketers are required to provide you with an unsubscribe button, removing your email address and eliminating future incoming mail. Valid businesses also provide unsubscribe buttons on their websites.

Taking the time to read and respond to the privacy policies of every online retailer, ISP, etc. is a task which is often "clicked through" and ignored. Most collect, distribute and use your address and information, preferences, etc. for advertising purposes. They often have a marketing preferences screen where you can uncheck boxes to remove your email address from their marketing and promotional lists, and their “partner” lists. All businesses are required to provide you with a more definitive option to stop unsolicited marketers, most often referred to as a Customer Proprietary Network Information or CPNI Restriction Request.

“At the bottom, the elimination of spyware and the preservation of privacy for the consumer are critical goals if the Internet is to remain safe and reliable and credible.”  – Cliff Stearns

“Exploring Alternatives to Emails” Series - A Brief History

Technology & Tooling

“Exploring Alternatives to Emails” Series

Internet protocols

Application layer

DHCP · DHCPv6 · DoIP · DNS · FTP · HTTP · IMAP · IRC · LDAP · MGCP · NNTP · NTP · POP · RPC · RTP · RTSP · SIP · SMTP · SNMP · SOCKS · SSH · Telnet · TLS/SSL · XMPP · (more) 

Transport layer

TCP · UDP · DCCP · SCTP · RSVP · (more) 

Internet layer

IP ( IPv4 · IPv6 ) · ICMP · ICMPv6 · RIP · OSPF · BGP · ECN · IGMP · IPsec · (more) 

Link layer

ARP/InARP · NDP · Tunnels ( L2TP ) · PPP · Media access control ( Ethernet · DSL · ISDN · FDDI ) · (more)

Internet Protocols provided by Wikipedia

A Brief History of Electronic Mail (email):

The advent of electronic mail (email) was a critical component for user to user digital communication with the introduction of the global Internet; connecting 2.2 billion users, or 1/3 of the world’s population, today. The first electronic mail system dates back to the 1970s, as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the world’s first packet switching network design.    

From circuit switching to packet switching

Throughout the first half of the 20^th Century, all communications, both voice and data were handled through circuit switching. Circuit switching is best explained by referencing our early telephone system, where communications were handled by allocating and routing each individual message through a series of designated circuits and connected stations (telephones or computers) stretching between point A and point B; the downside was “designated”. Packet switching revolutionized our communications, allowing both voice and data to be grouped into datagrams, or data packets within a computer network system, transmitting our communications simultaneously from network to network, using a single communications link.

From FTP to SMTP (protocols)

In addition to our migration from circuit switching to packet switching, protocols also improved. The older File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was replaced by the new standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) in the early 1980s. The SMTP not only sped up communications, but included more advanced delivery parameters, changing email communications from simple text messages to the look, feel and function of our 3-deminsional snail mail from a virtual post box. All email messages we sent or received had a standard format, including an envelope with identifying data, a header (addressee and subject) and body text. Today, and three decades later, virtually all emails still use the SMTP transfer protocol worldwide.

From text-only to MIME

Early email messages were text-only, traditionally small 7-bit ASCII files of data, much like the text messaging capabilities on our wireless phones. Advanced Internet standards were introduced for email formats expanding their capabilities from text-only messages to Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). This new standard not only dramatically changed the content format of our emails, but allowed us the capability for attachments, and continues to serve in an important role in our communication protocols over the global Internet. Virtually all digital communications today are transmitted in MIME format, whether an actual email message or something else, keeping our communications across the globe synchronized in a format we can all agree on, access, follow and understand.   

Technology & Tooling “Exploring Alternatives to Email” Series

“I get mail; therefore I am.”  – Scott Adams (1957)

2010 Internet in Numbers

Email accounts worldwide – 2.9 billion

Emails sent on over the Internet – 107 trillion

Email messages sent per day – 294 billion

Electronic mail opened the door for more effective and timely business communications, but as with any tool, there have been many frustrations and hurdles to manage over the past several decades. Improper use of email for mass marketing, and spam, including: backscatter, viruses, and worms are some of the most notable problems that create unmanageable volumes of unsolicited emails, and excessive time spent to simply clean out and maintain a viable communications tool.  My first email account was at Spalding (the sporting goods manufacturer) in 1990, as an intern...they were on the bleeding edge of technology (at the time).

I was featured in a great article written by Joel Mathis in the June 2012 issue of MacWorld Magazine, “Stop Using Emails forEverything”, as at the time I was receiving upwards of 500 emails each day that must be read, deleted, responded to, filed, etc...consuming large chunks of time during my day, and I am far from alone in my inundation.   It should be noted that roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the email was internal mail.  As COO of LAC-Group, I am tasked with the evaluation of new technology and tooling, achieving greater efficiencies, better communications and operations, internally with our large team of employees who work in one of our global offices or client locations all over the world. Our 300+ employees work in almost 65 different locations, and many have not met each other.

Join me over the next several weeks in this “Exploring Alternatives to Email” Series as I uncover and explore the history of electronic mail, how it works behind the scenes, the pros and cons of this massive worldwide communications tool, viable methodology for reducing excessive backscatter and high volumes, and the new technology and tooling available for more effective business communications in the future, perhaps replacing email altogether. As I continue in the series I'll also provide a view into our recent migration away from (internal) email - how we were successful, what we use and why.

Blog Reference:

Pingdom: Internet 2010 in Numbers

Libraries of our future…

• What will the library of our future look like?
• Will the physical library itself become extinct?
• Will digitization bring about the end of almost 5,000 years of collecting, housing and preserving our physical properties within our respective communities, altogether?

While no one holds the answers to these questions, many speculate the number of physical libraries themselves will continue to shrink, as the library patrons of the past continue to transition into Internet users for gathering and retrieving data. In a survey conducted by NetLibrary, 93% of undergraduate students asserted their preference for finding information online versus going to the library. On the other hand, libraries have and continue to serve the lower class citizens within communities, providing them with access to computers and information they otherwise wouldn’t be privy to. At my company, LAC Group, we offer consulting on this topic - helping libraries prepare for as much of the future as possible.  Much of this is around collection; however, we also touch on design characteristics and amenities.

State libraries themselves have different focal points, just as the laws from state to state are surprisingly still intricately different. The library itself serves an important role in housing, interpreting and disseminating those differences to the citizens within. And, much like early developing civilizations throughout the world, libraries continue to tell the unique story of man’s plight and journey in a specific region.   

And, while the debate over the future of our physical libraries rages on, perhaps the digital collections, their organization into highly effective databases, and the sharing and collaborations from state to state, federal and a worldwide basis hold some of the keys to their physical survival. After all, our need and desire to collect, house and preserve our treasures hasn’t decreased, but increased over time. That trend itself tells us the library, while its appearance will continue to evolve its importance to us, what it represents and houses for us remains at the very core of our civilization.

“We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.” – John Lubbock

Libraries of the Present

Libraries, of our present…

Libraries today stillprovide patrons with access to the treasures of their community, but thosetreasures now extend farther out into our world, and within a rapidly changinglandscape. Our libraries have become powerful technological resources with theinclusion of: onsite computers, impressive portals, highly organized databases, and extensive digital collections. While today’slibraries still serve the purpose of housing and preserving, some believe their evolutionwith technology has made them even more powerful cores within our presentsociety.       

While our libraries arestill filled with bookshelves and books, they also now provide communities withonline access, from within their four walls. Many modern patrons of the libraryvisit, not for the books per se, but for the access to a computer. Ironically,the physical library has now expanded the world to some by giving them accessto the vast World Wide Web, and its 80 billion pages of data (and growingdaily).

Our present-day librariesare not just physical repositories anymore, but most have already created astorefront within the Digital Marketplace, offering patrons a new virtual experience, aswell. As a result of early adaptation to the digitization movement, most librariesprovide open Internet access to their collections, from outside their fourwalls, from anywhere, and any computer device. In addition, over 75% ofpublic libraries now lend out ebooks, and 39.1% lend out ebook readers.

Whether inside the physicallibrary using a computer onsite, or offsite accessing the library’s informationretrieval system through a seamless portal, the amount of data (collections,volumes, archives, etc.) has exponentially increased, not only in quantity, butalso quality. Library databases are highly organized, and provide patrons withquick access to rich content that might otherwise take hours to find throughrandom searches on their own.

Sample partial librarydatabases (of digitized and rich metadata tagged content) include:

·     American Newspapers – electronic editions of hundreds of local,regional and national U.S. newspapers

·     Ancestry Library – 450 million digitally enhanced census recordsfrom the U.S. Federal Census

·     Automobile Repair Reference Center - all automobile makes and models from 1945 topresent, how to repair, maintenance schedules, recalls, etc.

·     Biography in Context - biographical details and images on 500,000+

·     History in Context - historical contextual online collection

·     Books &Authors - background, themes and origins of books and their authors.

·     Health & Wellness – medical publications, information on diseases,drugs, and healthy living.

·     Legal Forms Database - 1000’s of legal forms: federal, state, business,personal, real estate, etc.

·     Transparent Language Online - online learning system for 80 languages.

“Libraries are not made;they grow.” – Augustine Birrell

Blog Reference:

Public Libraries: Freeebooks available at your public library!

http://www.publiclibraries.com/

Libraries of the Past

A library, by definition,is a central, organized collection of a community’s documentation (historicalaccounts, artwork and resources) preserved, and made accessible forreading, reference and borrowing. The library was conceived to make public, theprivate spoils and treasures of a community.

The first libraries date asfar back as 2600 BC in Mesopotamia, containing clay tablets of cuneiform script,the earliest form of writing. The early libraries of this region also containedevidence of an early classification system used to catalog and organize theircollections, and most notably established the starting point of our world’s history.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia.org

Library ofAshurbanipal – The Flood Tablet/The Gilgamesh Tablet

As civilizations developedand evolved throughout the world, libraries played a critical role as the central repositoryfor their laws, artwork, historical accounts, census data and genealogies, andacademia. By providing citizens with access to the arts andliterature on every discipline, communities prospered and advanced. JuliusCaesar, among many others, even targeted the library for destruction duringconquests, as in the case of the famous Library of Alexandria, as he believedit would severely handicap his enemy. While most of us identify our schoolingand early learning with our frequent (or infrequent) trips to the library,these physical buildings have served a critical role in the development and preservation ofcivilization, since the beginning of man.

Traditionally, librariesserved as the physical repository where our books, magazines, newspapers,manuscripts, maps, artwork and films were housed and made accessible for thoseeager, or by necessity, “had” to learn. The Dewey Decimal Classification Systemwas implemented in 1876 and became the metadata classification standard forlibraries in over 135 countries, and for the last 136+ years. (See earlier blogfor brief history of the DDC: http://lac-group.blogspot.com/2012/01/document-imaging-with-and-without.html)As technology advanced, the physical library collection grew to includemicrofilm, microfiche, VHS, cassettes, CDs and DVDs. Many of us were firstintroduced to microfilm and fiche viewers, CRTs, Apples, and other earlycomputer devices for aural learning, games, and digital media in its infancy atthe library, of our past.    

“Book lovers willunderstand me, and they will know too that part of the pleasure of a librarylies in its very existence.” - JanMorris (Quoted in Heart of theCommunity: The Libraries We Love)

Blog Reference:

NPR: New York PublicLibrary:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/12/154786855/

“Free Information” Series – Playing in the Big Game

None of us knows with certainty today, whether future generations will ever have to clean black ink from their hands after reading a traditional newspaper, unwrap a new CD from its wrapper, or even physically visit a library. And, while some of these experiences have been priceless rites of passage for many of us, the possibilities and perks from instant access to “free information” are limitless.

There is no doubt, the tidal wave of “free information” has already claimed some traditional business models as casualties, but it has also opened the door to the globe for you, providing you with access to knowledge and tooling, beyond our ancestors’ dreams.

Regardless of industry or business size even, anyone can step up to bat. If you want to play in the big game, there is still plenty of time. While playing ball in the virtual marketplace requires creativity, outside-the-box thinking, and adapting your business model to fit the supply & demands of the online consumer, your entry is free.

As Larry Bird once said of his game, “Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.”   


When you point, click, and touch your way into the Digital Marketplace, you are in the company of 2.1 billion other players and fans, from all over the planet. Any one willing to dive for the ball can be a leader.