From: John Conover <john@email.johncon.com>
Subject: Re: Dataquest Report: The Great Pentium Fire Drill
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 94 14:38 PST
Patrick McGeer writes:
> There's an interesting sentence in the DQ report (only tangentially related to
> Pentium)
>
> > There is also a lesson on the use of the Internet here. The
> > nature of electronic mail is such that it strips personal
> > interaction from communication. Without this interaction, simple
> > statements or even typographical errors can be interpreted as
> > strong opinion and can touch off torrents of strongly-worded
> > messages.
>
> Well, I wouldn't challenge this (challenging this statement is a little like
> questioning whether the Sun rises in the east). But it appears to me that
> this comment would apply to *all* written communication -- and I don't ever
> recall hearing of a spiralling torrent of nasty Snail Mail letters. What
> is it about e-mail that distinguishes it from other written communication?
>
> -- Rick
This brings up a favorite peeve of mine-that email is treated like a
second class written communication. Did you see the Civil War series
by Ken Burns on PBS. The letter from Sullivan Belieu to his wife was a
tear jerker. So eloquent. If it had been an email, it would have been
something like:
Being flamed by the Blue suites. Probably going to die.
SB
I noticed that when we started running formal management on top of
sendmail at S-MOS, that those with the most eloquent and sophisticated
writing skills had a political advantage. (Now, whether this was a
positive attribute, or a new complexity of politics remains to be
seen.)
John
--
John Conover, john@email.johncon.com, http://www.johncon.com/