E-communications & Netiquette

Last month, we discussed the need for some organizations to establish guidelines beyond email. And we discussed topics that should be included in your new e-communications policy. By now, you should realize the advantages of establishing a more comprehensive policy that includes all communication devices and converging technologies used in your organization.

Beyond email and e-communications policies is netiquette. E-communications policy and netiquette guidelines are separate entities that should not be confused with one another. However, they should be mutually supportive. E-communications policies are mainly mandatory usage rules (e.g. “do not harass,” “do not download viruses,” “do not do illegal things with corporate assets”). Netiquette mainly sets out voluntary style and behavioral guidelines for employees to follow (e.g. “do not forward messages to others without the author’s permission,” “do not mix multiple subjects in one communication”). With netiquette guidelines, you can improve communication practices in today’s collaborative workplace environment.

Often, the need for netiquette guidelines comes from employees who are tired of being on the receiving end of poor communications. Perhaps they see others using unclear or inappropriate language and want written guidelines to fall back on. Or they simply want to learn how to become better communicators themselves. With netiquette guidelines, your organization can reinforce its culture, encourage good communication practices and behavioral expectations regarding the use of corporate communications facilities.

1. Carry out a review of how employees view the quality of communications in the organization. You may discover that employees at the nerve ends of the organization have a different view on the quality of communications sent from above, compared to the opinions held in the boardroom. Are employees receiving communications that leave them with more questions than answers? Do they want or see the need for netiquette guidelines?

2. Get your staff and managers involved in studying existing netiquette models. There are many good examples and references available. Some are online, and others are in published books. As this subject has less to do with technology and more to do with human behavior, the age of these resources is not important. Good Communications Polices can be applied to the lastest technologies.

3. Establish your own corporate netiquette guidelines. Publish them and use innovative methods to train people in netiquette and e-communications policy. Don’t forget to include these polices in your standard personnel training. Netiquette guidelines may be published separately or as an annex to the e-communications policy. Either way, the two should be seen as different sides of the same coin. Together they will ensure that all corporate communications to carry out the business aims of the organization in a manner that is effective, efficient and respectful of the law.

This is Part 3 of a three-part series. Jump to: Part 1 or Part 2.

Richard Barry is Principal of Barry Associates (www.rbarry.com) and workshop leader in information management and records management practices.

End Disk Drag

Defrag for a Speedier Drive

Bit by bit fragmentation creeps up on you. It slows down your PC just like the flu flattens humans. Fragmentation is like looking at your face every day in the mirror. You don’t notice any changes, but your kids will notice that your hair is turning gray and you have a few new wrinkles. The same can be said for hard disks. You see your systems perform every day and may not notice as they get slower and slower.

1. Defragment your drive. To defrag a disk, right click on the icon and click properties. The defragmentation utility is under the Tools tab. Then click the “defragment now” option. The utility will first assess how fragmented the disk is in terms of a percentage. If this figure exceeds 10 percent, Windows will recommend that you continue with this step. Repeat this step on a regular basis to ensure peak performance. Windows 98 offers a maintenance wizard that lets you schedule defragmentation on a monthly or weekly interval.

2. Make the blocks larger. To increase disk throughput, use a larger block size the next time you reinitialize the disk. This will improve the file system’s throughput, but it’s not recommended if you have a small disk drive. Larger blocks can waste disk space.

3. Isolate fast files. You can isolate performance-critical files in a single file system (or group of file systems) and then optimize the rest of the file systems for storage efficiency. This solution works surprisingly well. Performance-critical files are almost always large, and storage efficiency is less critical (per-file wasted space is small compared to the file’s size).

Robert Infantino is CEO and founder of Astrum Software, Boston, MA, (www.astrumsoftware.com).