1-15-07, Week 2

Email

In 2001 (Ducheneuaut, N and Bellotti V. ) found that on average workers had 11 years email experience? That means they started getting email in 1990? Wow, that’s seems very soon to me, as I still work with people who refuse to use email and have it printed.

Sharepoint services and Exchange from MS seem to fulfill almost all the request these authors have for email. It is a great way to have versioning, document exchange, calendaring, and email all together. And with webmail, its useful anywhere. I wonder how much the results would have changed if this study was again redone in 2007. 17 years of email!! I must be a really late adopter.

There was a big divide in my life. My high school friends were pre-computer. My college friends are post-computer. I was always glad that I had access to email and IM with my college friends, because I kept in touch with way more of them because of it. There were a lot of people that I knew from college that I liked well enough to chat with every once in awhile, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to call or visit them. But it was nice not to loose all contact. With my high school friends I didn’t have IM yet, so I lost touch with most except the closest.

My question is are the “IM” & “Email” friends worth keeping? Are they friends? I mean, its nice to have them, see how they are doing every once in awhile, but to me they seem more like acquaintances. Its nice to hear from and about them, but I’m not sure how much they meaningfully contribute to my life. They are probably more like the pre-technology lady you run into the store and say hi, how are your kids, ect. Its nice, but you’re not that close. The people I am close to, I’m still close to, I’m not sure how much email helped or hurt that relationship.