Dear Colleagues,
I request that you do NOT send attachments to the list.
Many of us work from multiple locations, and attachments
wreak havoc with our access to email.
This list just now transmitted an attachment of 2.2 MB.
I am working at my home office in the rural countryside
of northern Europe. At my school, a 2.2 MB attachment
would download in less time than it takes me to type this
note. At home, it took me nearly 45 minutes to receive
this document.
This has three unhappy consequences.
First, an attachment is a cork in the flow of email. I can't
just by-pass it. I can get NO OTHER MAIL until the
document is completely downloaded.
Second, a lengthy download costs money. At high
European local access rates, this can add up.
The Mg-Ed-Dv list is a worldwide discussion list. It is
not simply North American.
I pay, personally, for email access at home. This 2.2 MB
45-minute document cost me nearly $10 US. That's ten
bucks friends. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy
paying ten dollars to receive an advertisement, not even
an advertisement for a worthy academic meeting.
Third, I NEVER open unexpected attachments. The
way to prevent virus infection is to take extreme care
with attachments. It is vital to know who it comes from,
to know that their system is safe and virus free, and to
know what the document contains and why. There is
never any assurance on these factors when receiving
an attachment via a discussion list.
There is no way to know that this document genuinely
comes from Miguel Olivas. It probably does, but I don't
personally know this. If this had been sent to me directly
and personally, I would write first to check before
opening. I suppose I can trust an attachment emanating
from Katz ... but I recall that the one virus I got
in the past eight years came in a CFP from a top level
research university. Finally, since I don't know with
certainty what this contains or why it was sent to me,
I would not open it before receiving personal confirmation
on my query.
For three big reasons, it is inappropriate to post a
document like this to a list, at least as long as some of
us live outside the US, work at home offices, pay high rates
for connection time, and worry about viruses in the
age of Red Code and NIMBA.
It is better policy to mount a document of this size on
the Web or even post a note to the list. Make the ascii
plain text note as long as it needs to be. Allow people
who want to learn more to visit a URL.
Best regards,
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University