Amer Neely
Remember last column I mentioned being able to communicate with over 35 million people without a long distance phone call? I'll have to revise that figure - the Internet has grown since then. Actually, I've seen a recent figure of 37 million people over the age of 16 in Canada and the U.S. with Internet access! This column I'll try to give you an idea of the types of things you can do using electronic mail, or email as it's known.
What can you do with email?
Email is the electronic version of sending someone a letter. You create the message, address it correctly, post it, and in a while the recipient gets it in their mailbox.
Here are some of the things you can do with email:
Sending and receiving messages
With an Internet account, you typically receive a program to handle your email. Depending on the type of account you have, the program might be called Pine, Pegasus, Eudora, or some other one. I'm not going to try to teach you how each of the individual programs work - that would require a few articles in itself. Rather, I'll try to be as general as possible, only mentioning things I'm sure you can do with your program.
What's an email address?
As a general rule of thumb, any kind of "address" you see with "@" (called the "at" symbol) in it is an email address. For example, my email address is "softouch@softouch.on.ca". When you say this, it's pronounced as "softouch at softouch dot o-n dot c-a". If you think of it as two parts, before and after the @ symbol, it will be easier to understand. Email addresses are typically printed in lower case, however it makes no difference to the computer.
Anything before the @ symbol specifies a particular user, or account. In my address, that would be "softouch" You may see other addresses where a person's full name is used, separated by a dot. For example it might be something like "amer.neely@softouch.on.ca". Other examples might be for a title, as in "webmaster@softouch.on.ca" or "info@softouch.on.ca". It all depends on how the administrators have set up their email system. One thing is absolute though - you cannot have two identical addresses. If you want to use "guru" as your email user name, and someone on the same site is already using it, you will have to choose some other name. The administrators may be able to offer you some suggestions.
The stuff after the "@" sign is the location or computer where that particular account resides. So, in my case it would be "softouch.on.ca". Again it doesn't matter whether this is in upper or lower case, but it is usually left in lower case.
Sending a message to someone
Some people still have trouble getting used to the fact that you can send messages to someone anywhere in the world without paying long distance phone bills. Well, you'd better get used to it, because email is one of the biggest uses of the Internet, for that simple reason. What's the big deal about sending someone an email message?
Well, for one thing, if you had been using long distance telephone to carry on conversations with someone, you now have another choice (no, not going to another long distance provider!).
If you have email access and the other party has email access, you can avoid long distance calls almost entirely. How much do you spend now on long distance phone calls? Let's say it's $100.00 a month. A typical Internet account should only be about $30.00 a month. You call a local number to log in to your account, send your message out, and log off. You don't have to wait until 3:00 a.m. to call someone in Europe for 9:00 a.m. The time you send the message is entirely up to you.
The reverse is obviously true. If someone sends you email, you will know about it as soon as you next log in to your account. If you normally start your business day at 9:00 a.m., take a few minutes to check your email. Later in the afternoon, you can check again. It's entirely at your control. This is a big selling point, since it gives you more control over your time. You decide when you want to send or check for email.
Sending files using email
And if you think you can only send little bitty text-based messages back and forth, well, that would truly be a waste of resources. What about sending those latest spreadsheets to your person out of town? Or how about the draft proposal for next year's budget, which was done using your favourite word processor? Would you like to be able to just send it off to all the members of the budget committee for review? Well, you can with email. And obviously, the members can make their changes, and email them back to you.
The way to do this is using a feature of your email program called "attaching" a file. The email programs I mentioned earlier (Pine, Pegasus, Eudora) all allow you to do this. They are called "MIME compliant" programs. MIME stands for Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions. You can attach any type of file you like, even graphic images or audio files. Now don't get carried away and start attaching huge 4 megabyte files to your email buddies all over the world. If you have an ongoing need to send large files to people, you might want to talk to your Internet provider about another way of achieving this called ftp. We'll talk about this in a later column. So what's a large file? Well, as a rule of thumb let's say any file over 500KB (500,000 bytes) might be better off using a different method. Or, if possible, consider splitting the file up into multiple parts and sending each part individually. Again, if you have questions talk with your Internet provider about it.
One important point to remember. If you do send someone an attached file, make sure you inform them what kind of file it is in the main message body of your email. Some programs even let you enter a name for the file, so that the receiving party doesn't have to make one up. This is good netiquette.
OK, just so we all understand this, yes you can send your WordPerfect files to someone using email. Or your Paradox spreadsheet, or the digitized picture of your new pet. It's done by "attaching" the file to your email message. Your email program has to be "MIME compliant" to do this.
Email to other systems
I mentioned being able to send email to CompuServe and some other online services. Email is not limited to just the Internet. As mentioned earlier, an email address consists of a user name and a computer name separated by the "@" sign. On CompuServe for example, user names are typically a double set of numbers, such as 74389,3522. If you know the user address of someone with a CompuServe account, then you can send them email. Here's how. Change the comma to a dot, then add the "@" sign, then "compuserve.com". So, if your friend's user ID was 74389,3522, you could send them email by addressing the message to 74389.3522@compuserve.com. Pretty neat eh? Other networks may have similar quirks, but for the most part it is safe to say that any online system is able to get and send email from an Internet address. Talk to your Internet provider if you need to know more.
Mailing lists
A mailing list is a closed loop of individuals who have a common topic or subject of interest. Sort of like a club or organization. To get involved you "subscribe" to the mailing list and soon you will be receiving email from others in the list. Subscribing doesn't mean you have to pay - most lists are free to join. They are a very good way to keep up with what's happening and to share information.
If you are involved in any type of non-profit activity, there are probably mailing lists you can join where discussions are carried on about various aspects of the activity. Wouldn't it be great to hear how someone in another country is doing the same thing you are? Imagine expanding the number of people sharing your same interests and goals by a few hundred or thousand. And you thought you were all alone! If you can't seem to find a list suitable for your needs, it's possible to start your own. But make sure you exhaust all possibilities before doing this - no sense in duplicating something.
Joining a mailing list is usually done by sending an email message to a particular email address with the word "subscribe" somewhere in the subject heading or message body. Read the instructions for the list you're interested in. An important thing to note is that most lists have two addresses - one to subscribe or unsubscribe, and another to actually send a posting to the list. Keep this very clear in your mind. I've seen too many people wishing to get off a mailing list by sending an "unsubcribe" message to the wrong address. This ensures that everyone on the list gets the message. In some cases this could number in the tens of thousands! Not good netiquette.
Some lists are moderated, which means a human is actually reading each message before passing it on to the rest of the list. This ensures that the content and nature of the list remains intact. Other lists are broadcast in digest form. This means that instead of each message going out to everyone, a collection of postings is mailed out as a single message. If the list is really active, this is better than getting individual messages.
What's a mailserver?
This is a special email program which you can set up at your organization if you have your own Internet server. It handles such things as a request for information about your organization. Instead of spending time on the phone, or sending out a return email message, you can provide a file as a response to an email inquiry. This not only saves you time and money, but the person requesting the information as well. It also ensures that the same information is given out to each inquiry. If a change is needed, just update the one file.
You can provide anything from a simple description of your service to a complete profile, including mandate, member list, or whatever you like. The advantages of using a mailserver include the ability to provide information to people 24 hours a day with no human intervention; you only have to have one copy of the information; you save time and money by automating the process; and it's extremely simple to make a change. Don't make the mistake though of thinking a mailserver is a substitute for human communication. They are best used if you spend a lot of time answering the same questions. Always provide a phone number to call if someone needs more information.
These are the most common purposes which you can use email for. Other uses include doing ftp searches, gopher requests, newsgroup posting, and even web searching. If you have questions about any of these uses, send me an email message! Before leaving though, there is one important thing you should know about email.
Privacy and security
For the most part, your email is private. This means that it is possible for someone else to read your mail but not likely. In the same way that sending a letter through the regular mail is "mostly" private. There is nothing to stop a postal employee from opening your letter and reading the contents (or replacing the contents with something else). The administrators of the site where you have your Internet account have the right and ability to read your mail, as do the administrators of any network your message travels through. But this is almost unheard of. If you are going to be sending sensitive material via email and need to be positive no-one can retrieve the contents, you have to use encryption, sort of like getting a scrambler for your telephone. Talk to your Internet provider about this, or email me: softouch@softouch.on.ca. It may be a topic for a future column.
Next time we'll talk about other aspects of the Internet and how to utilize them for your non-profit organization.