[Air-l] NEW THINKING Newsletter

Ken Friedman ken.friedman at bi.no
Sun Nov 4 12:48:45 PST 2001


Dear Colleagues,

For those of you who may not know it,
I'd like to recommend Gerry McGovern's
fine newsletter, New Thinking.

Subscriptions are free. All information
below in a recent issue.


Best regards,

Ken Friedman

--

Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 20:00:04 +0000
Reply-To: gerry at GERRYMCGOVERN.COM
From: The New Thinking Newsletter <NEW-THINKING at LIST.ADVENTIVE.COM>
Subject: Email: too much of a good thing?
To: NEW-THINKING at LIST.ADVENTIVE.COM


You are subscribed as: ken.friedman at BI.NO

******************************************************************
NEW THINKING NEW THINKING NEW THINKING NEW THINKING NEW THINKING
By Gerry McGovern - Email: gerry at gerrymcgovern.com
******************************************************************
November 05, 2001 - Volume 6 Number 43
******************************************************************

MAKE BETTER USE OF YOUR WEB CONTENT
Help your organization get the right content to the right person
at the right time at the right cost. A professional content
management strategy will save your organization money, while
delivering real value from your content.

For more information, please send an email to:
mailto:info at gerrymcgovern.com

Or, visit the website:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/services.htm

******************************************************************

HAVE YOU ENJOYED NEW THINKING?
If you have, Gerry McGovern would like to hear about it.
(Constructive criticism is welcome too!) If you have a minute,
please send a brief accolade (max: 100 words), describing what
you like about the publication. This may then be published on
Gerry=92s website, or in other promotional material for Gerry
McGovern. Please also include your name, title and organization
(if appropriate). Please send accolades to:
mailto:gerry at gerrymcgovern.com

Also, you might pass the word on to someone else, and encourage
them to subscribe.

Thank you.

Gerry McGovern


******************************************************************

EMAIL: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Email is regarded as a primary tool of the new economy. It
has become a critical means of communication for a great
many organizations and individuals. Email is used because
it makes communication more efficient and cost effective.
However, there are signs that email aids unnecessary
communication. Is email becoming a productivity drain,
rather than a productivity gain?

Last week I received an email from a friend who was
commenting on my piece on the technology productivity
paradox. He mentioned a conversation he had had with an
executive from Aldi, a very successful discount retailer
chain. To quote from his email: "None of their senior
managers (or lower levels) are allowed to have email.
Phone and fax is what runs the company. Why are they
like this? Email does not aid productivity."

My immediate response to this statement was: How could
that be? I live by email. Without it, I would be totally
cut off. But that's obviously not the case for Aldi. The
view that email does not aid productivity is backed up
by a number of studies and reports:

* In September 2001, IDC predicted that there will be
    1.2 billion email mailboxes by 2005, up from 505
    million in 2000. It also predicted that by 2005 there
    will be 36 billion person-to-person emails sent
    worldwide every day.
* In July 2001, Ferris Research predicted that 2001
    would see a 50 percent rise in the number of emails
    business users would receive, with further growth of
    between 35-50 percent during 2002.
* In July 2001, a Gartner study stated that business
    users receive an average of 22 email messages a day,
    and spend an average of 49 minutes every day managing
    their email. Gartner stated that much email is not
    relevant. It compared unproductive email to, "being
    killed by friendly fire. It's like carbon monoxide.
    It's colorless, odorless".
* In May 2001, Support.com published a survey of IT
    professionals globally which found that email
    software caused the more problems than any other
    software application.

Has the Internet become the Trojan Horse of information
overload? Millions embrace email and the Web, believing
that greater productivity will be achieved. Yet, it
looks like millions have become unwilling participants
in a great productivity swindle.

The root cause of the problem is a counter-productive
thinking about content and communication. Deep down,
many of us fundamentally believe that more and bigger
is better. How come when you ask 100 people to write
1,000 words on a subject, 80 will write more than
1,000 words, 18 will write just 1,000 words and only 2
will write less than 1,000 words?

Communication and content are not commodities. More
communication can harm rather than aid productivity.
More content can mean more wasted time. The world
realized that it couldn't sustain 20 billion people
and measures were taken to slow population growth. The
business world can't sustain 36 billion email messages
a day. It's time for some form of limit, some form of
penalty for those who clog up the information arteries.

Gerry McGovern
<mailto:gerry at gerrymcgovern.com>


WEBSITE LINK FOR THIS ISSUE:
<http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2001/nt_2001_11_05_email.htm>

******************************************************************
MAKE BETTER USE OF YOUR WEB CONTENT

Help your organization get the right content to the right person
at the right time at the right cost. A professional content
management strategy will save your organization money, while
delivering real value from your content.

For more information, please send an email to:
mailto:info at gerrymcgovern.com

Or, visit the website:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/services.htm

******************************************************************


HAVE YOU ENJOYED NEW THINKING?
If you have, Gerry McGovern would like to hear about it.
(Constructive criticism is welcome too!) If you have a minute,
please send a brief accolade (max: 100 words), describing what
you like about the publication. This may then be published on
Gerry=92s website, or in other promotional material for Gerry
McGovern. Please also include your name, title and organization
(if appropriate). Please send accolades to:
mailto:gerry at gerrymcgovern.com

Also, you might pass the word on to someone else, and encourage
them to subscribe.

Thank you.

Gerry McGovern
******************************************************************

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
New Thinking is published every Monday, 48 weeks a year (two week
break during August and December).

Occasionally, there will be special issues which will deal with
major events, and/or special announcements concerning Gerry
McGovern. However, there should be no more than four of
these a year.
******************************************************************

SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING
Sponsors and advertisers will be sought for New Thinking.

******************************************************************

COPYRIGHT
Permission to re-publish an individual issue is given, once the
following conditions are met:
* Gerry McGovern is given proper recognition as the author of
the piece
* A link to Gerry McGovern's website is published
* The piece is not modified in any way
* Subscription details for New Thinking are provided
* Gerry McGovern is informed of the re-publication

mailto:gerry at gerrymcgovern.com

******************************************************************

SUBSCRIBING TO NEW THINKING

To Subscribe to New Thinking either:

Send a blank email to:
mailto:new-thinking-join-request at list.adventive.com

Or go to:

<http://list.adventive.com/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?SUBED1=3Dnew-thinking&A=3D1>

UNSUBSCRIBING FROM NEW THINKING

To Unsubscribe from New Thinking either:

Send a blank email to:
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Or go to:

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Remember to use the same email address to unsubscribe as you
originally subscribed with.
You are subscribed as: ken.friedman at BI.NO

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
If you are having any technical problems, please email:
mailto:gerry at gerrymcgovern.com

******************************************************************




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