Concept 13

13. Communication is not complete upon receipt

A major disadvantage of email and similar asynchronous communications systems is that, often or sometimes, human users assume that when a message has been received, then it is automatically going to be acted upon or read or similar processed by the human(s) to which it was sent. While computers are very good at automatically processing information, humans are not.
The key to effective email management is to consistently and conscientiously respond to and act upon the email you receive, while recognising that others may not be as efficient as yourself.
Equally, a website is not complete when it is created and presented: it has to be used. Websites are, basically, a very indirect form of communication and so, if we wish to use the web effectively, we can apply the same lesson: simply visiting a website is not sufficient…doing something with it is what closes the circuit of communication.

Communication is not complete upon receipt. Email, fax, snail mail, messenger, yelling across a room, whispering in an ear... who gets a receipt? Communication has never been an exact science. What is frustrating with the myriad of asynchronous communication systems is that there are so many of them now. So many options of how to make a piece of communication. So many individual preferences all made based on nothing in particular. There are no rules here.
Forget communication on a personal basis, that is a work in progress for our society doing great things with Facebook, mobile phones, SMS, twitter, You Tube and email. These forums have made communication fun and different for those who 'get into it'. But there are a lot of people who don't. I personally don't because it takes just too much time, especially if you actually want a response!
Advertisers try to break into these markets, it's a lot of work to get a message in and responded to.The web and email has fragmented the communication channels from both sides.
The concern when writing formulas for e-direct mail is that a mass email can be sent very economically and quickly. It is not a favoured form of communication, because many people don't open their emails unless they are personal. A personal email does not look personal unless it is personal. That means you need to trust and desire to communicate with the person or business attached to that particular address.
Then there is the cold heartedness of the web for individuals exploring businesses and the community. You can feel unresponded to. The web does not have a politeness factor. This is very difficult to resolve. The best websites make an effort to acknowledge visits. In my experience complaints are not acknowledged often. It is very easy to sign up for things but not easy to get a question answered or service afterwards.Communication should be complete upon receipt. The fact that it is not is what makes the web ineffective. It is a bit hit and miss, so unless you can close the loop by other means ie phone or letter then professionally it is not a stand alone communication, but then again, what is? Any task would need to be followed up and checked throughout its journey to completion. Why does the internet imply completeness. I think it's because there is no visible recipient. It asks you to trust it, because once you have pressed send you have no other means of knowing whether it is truly with the recipient. So there is a built-in assumption there that it must work otherewise it's useless. Which many times it is. And no-one wants to accept this fact.
The internet has a long way to go. It has come a long way too. This course is basically my second look at internet. When I first took an interest it was so raw and basic that I lost interest. This was in 1997 before the dot.coms crashed. 498 words.

Tschabitscher, H (2009) About.com Guide to Email since 1997
http://email.about.com/

This About.com site covers it on 'emails'. The site is part of The New York Times group of companies and has been running since 1997. It has a faithful following on many useful topics, not just email. This 'email' topic within the site talks about good email housekeeping and how to create successful marketing emails. It is relevant to this concept because it illustrates just how much there is to know about a simple topic like email. Email has a lot of applications. Improving our understanding of its uses will improve our chances of enjoying closed circuit communication when we use email.

HavenWorks.com (2009) HavenWorks.com is an Independent American News Website Blog.
http://www.havenworks.com/

This website, gets the prize for the worst website. it looks bad and it is not even current. The last piece of news it has on Australia dates back to February 2008 and is about the Australian Wheat Board price rise. I have included it here to illustrate how badly designed a website can be. It is not that useful, all my searches turned up nothing, so I am not sure who is actually benefitting from this website. News by date (fyi todays date is 17.05.09) has the top entry dated 31 March 2009. How useless. It is also an illustration of what a website looks like when you have no hope of finding out who is behind it. Take my word for it, this site has made me feel bilious.