Not-So-Random Thoughts re the Economy, E-Mail, and Social Networking

Spent some time last week at both an AIIM/New England chapter event (Happy 40th!) and the Gilbane Conference in Boston, and came away with a few distinct impressions:

• The economy may be slumping, but opportunity is everywhere. The difference is that organizations in boom times are more likely to invest in initiatives with longer-term payoff schedules than is the case today. So if you’re seeking a piece of the budget – either as an inside line-of-business executive or an outside product or service provider – you had better be sure your ROI numbers are locked down tight and show a return in less than one year.
  

• Email is losing its effectiveness as a communications tool. Once treasured for its immediacy and ability to reach a specific individual, its value has eroded in the face of proliferating spam, spreading viruses, and the overuse of impersonal bulk messaging. A DM News article earlier this year put a fine point on this by citing a Lyris Inc. ISP Deliverability Study that found nearly 20% permission-based e-mail messages sent to US-based ISPs winds up in recipients’ junk mail folders. So much for it being a medium for one-to-one communications …
  

• Social networking is all the rage … even if few seem ready to embrace it. In this, I was reminded of the early days of the Internet, when Web connectivity was top-of-mind for vendors and users alike, but neither could articulate any practical reason to use it. The good news is that the use of the word “social” suggests people (finally!) are in the center of the technology radar screen, which is where they always should be but too often aren’t. But no one yet really knows how technology – or maybe which technology – can best capture, manage, and repurpose the free-flowing and largely unstructured information that is being shared. The current answer seems to be like the old Life cereal commercial: “Try it, you’ll like it!” and for those with a well-defined audience and purpose, the potential (as before, with the Web) does seem vast.
  

– Steve Weissman