E-Mail Quoting...

From: David V. Corbin <dvcorbin_at_optonline.net>
Date: Wed Aug 18 09:16:00 2004

Hans,

I Completely agree with wht you are saying....

>>> Well, nice, and a great idea - except that good information retrival is
99% about how the information is prepared beforehand and only 1% about how
it is accessed ... and so we're back to the discipline part.

Therefore the work need to be done AS THE INFORMATION IS ADDED. Look back at
the Web and its original intention (Getting away from Linear information
flow). The "problem" is that the information was posted with no regard to
organization, structure, duplication, or in fact anything! Now what we have
is a vast repository of information that in many cases is entirely useless.

Forumulate almost any simple question... "What Year did....", "Who
Said....", "What is the maximum resolution of [fill-in] video card?". In
each of these cases I am sure the information is on some page of some site
somewhere. Any search engine will return tons of junk, due to their very
nature.

Going back to non-realtime communication...I am not sure if you use any of
the MOTERATED forums that exist on the web. Postings are organized into
topic, the moderators will move items that are misplaced, and edit content
that is not appropriate. I do the same for "non-structured" content that I
wish to track that originates from e-mails by having my e-mail integrated
with a CRM system. The only annoying part right now is deailng with the
"duality" of the from addresses.

Since I (usually) read my e-mail in the order it is received, it is quite
common to (want to ) respond to an issue that has already been addressed.
The alternaive of reading my most recently first has other issues and is not
really a solution. When I am in an environment that shows a TREE with
responses organized by who was responjding to which element of the topic, I
can easily see if that issue has a response, scane that (without reading all
of the responses in the entire discussion) and then decide if I want to
respond (to the person who originally raised the issue, or to the last
person who chimed in on the matter).


David
Received on Wed Aug 18 2004 - 09:16:00 BST