Transcript Managing Incoming Email - University of Kentucky

Managing Incoming Email
Chapter 3 Bit Literacy
Terminology
• Email client – program which retrieves emails from a mail server, lets
you read the mails, compose and send replies which are sent to the
mail server. It is usually an independent application, not part of a
browser. Examples: MS Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora
• Email server - server program on a computer using a protocol like
POP3 (post office protocol) or SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) or
IMAP (Internet message access protocol)
• Web-based email – managing email via a web browser. Gmail, Yahoo
mail, Hotmail, AOL mail are some examples.
Email is asynchronous
• Asynchronous (as opposed to synchronous) means that the acts of
sending and receiving email messages do not have to be “in sync” or
happening within a very short time span
• You do not have to be logged onto the Internet to receive email
• Synchronous assumes that the two acts are happening almost
simultaneously
• Synchronous communication examples:
• Phone call
• Instant Messaging
Where is your email?
• One question is where is your mail actually kept? Does it reside on
the server, where you read it with a browser, or on your local machine
where you read it with a mail client?
• Advantage to web-based email – it is portable, you can access it
wherever you can find a browser
• Disadvantages – you need an Internet connection to see your mail,
provider may set a limit on how big your mailbox is on their server
• Privacy concerns – web-based email tends to stay on servers longer
than non-web-based. And if your provider is in the US, your mail is
subject to the Patriot Act which allows law enforcement to see your
email without informing you!
Cautions about email
• Clicking on attachments? Don’t! One of the easiest ways to get an infected file
onto your computer or to get taken to a phishing site
• Use caution about sending email when you are upset. Email goes in seconds, too
late to retrieve!
• Spam – named after a Monty Python sketch, wastes huge amounts of bandwidth
these days
• Think before you forward email
• Does it contain personal information which should not be shared?
• Is the person you’re forwarding to interested in the message?
• Mail links instead of attaching huge files – some people still have dialup
connections!
• Use encryption for more privacy – PGP is the most common implementation
(Pretty Good Privacy) (public key / private key encryption)
How big is your inbox?
• Hundreds of messages? thousands?
• A full inbox makes it hard for a user to find the new messages – every
message is in competition with them
• It’s hard to prioritize when there are too many messages
• It’s harder to find a particular message
• It makes you reread messages because you read it and forgot it
• It makes other people work harder – they have to remind you of tasks
multiple times
• Larger inboxes are more likely to crash!
Psychological Effects of a big inbox
• Users feel guilty for being late with handling matters, fearful they
have forgotten something in the pile of messages
• Constant reminder of how much work the user needs to be doing
Reasons people have a big mailbox
• Some see a big mailbox as proof that they are important
• Some are lonely without email
• Email is a good distraction from real work
Never delete email! (except spam)
• If it can’t stay in the inbox, where to put it?
• Some clients offer an archive option, all of them offer ‘folders’ to put
emails in
• Why not erase it? If it is a business email, it may be legally important
one day
• Useful to keep for reference purposes
• For teaching, I keep all emails easily accessible that I send to or
receive from a student or an assistant during the semester
• At end of semester, I archive them all in semester backup
Uses of the inbox
• People use it for things it was not made for
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A To-Do list
Filing system to store messages
Calendar
Bookmark list
Address book
• The inbox should be to hold new messages temporarily until they can
be dealt with (this may mean deletion, it may mean archiving, it may
mean storing in a specific folder)
Good Daily Practice
• Empty the inbox at least once a day
• First, read personal mail (if a business, may not allow personal mail)
and removed
• Spam just removed – make sure you use a good filter! But even it may
not be perfect. So remove the spam by hand as needed
• Deal with the remaining email by filing it in folders appropriately –
keep a To-do list and put things on it as you get them, for small things
that take a couple minutes, go ahead and do them, get them off the
list
• Newsletters, mailing lists, FYIs – make a media diet
How often to check and clean?
• Some people keep email alerts going all the time
• That makes it easy to handle mails as they come in
• Some people read email a set number of times per day, like one
• If you are trying to concentrate on a project, turn off the alerts for a
few hours
• “Email-free Fridays” in a lot of companies these days
• Try to reduce the number of email inboxes you read – how many
accounts do you have? Do you need another bitstream coming to
you?