CTI News> Save your @ss feature> <gg> E-mail lifesaver or in-box invasion?
November 10, 1998
Network World
"Unsend! Unsend! Unsend!"
You've probably seen the TV commercial in
which two co-workers fed up with their lousy
laptops fire off a flaming e-mail to the boss ,
only to learn seconds later that he has
already ordered them new machines. A
frantic, futile search for the "unsend" button
ensues .
In real life, some e-mail products - Novell
GroupWise and Microsoft Outlook, for
example - let users "unsend" or retract a
message. However, the message needs to
have been sent within the company to
another user of that same software and
cannot already have been read. Novell
officials call this option the "save your job
feature," and they insist customers love it.
On the other hand, market leader Lotus does
not support retraction capabilities in Notes
and has no plans to do so even when Version
5.0 ships later this year. Although some
customers have recently expressed interest
in the capability, Lotus says most consider
the feature a low priority, or worse, an
administrative headache that customers
would rather not introduce into their
networks.
Amid the differing vendor approaches and
customer opinions lies this question: At what
point does possession of an e-mail message
tr ansfer from a sender to a recipient?
"We have had a lot of conversations over the
last 10 years about exactly that question
and have asked a lot of customers about it,"
says John Gailey, Novell director of
collaboration services. "What we have
evolved to is that as a sender it is my e-mail
message un til you have opened it or
accessed it some way. Once you have
accessed it in some way, it is now your
e-mail message, and I cannot u ndo or
retract it."
That sounds reasonable, but imagine this
scenario: You open your in-box view and see
10 freshly delivered messages. Just as you
move to open the one from your boss - poof
- it disappears before your eyes.
Never mind "save your job," some might call
that a "shake your confidence" feature.
Moreover, with the threat of e-mail-related
hara ssment lawsuits a growing reality, it
isn't difficult to imagine the potential for user
abuse of this tool.
At least that's the way Lotus and some IT
professionals see it.
Proponents of e-mail retraction, however,
see more benefits than pitfalls. They call
retraction an invaluable remedy for those
insta nces when sensitive material gets
distributed inadvertently, a meeting time
needs to be changed or an e-mail goes out
without its pr omised attachment.
Travis Berkley, supervisor of LAN support
services at the University of Kansas, is a firm
supporter of the retraction function in Gr
oupWise. "It keeps you from looking stupid"
when fresh information or a belatedly
discovered mistake turns an already delivered
e-ma il message into a problem just waiting
to be opened, he says.
"I have had folks ask me how to retract over
the Internet because they've gotten spoiled
on GroupWise," Berkley says. "You can actua
lly watch the blood drain out of their faces"
when they are told this is not possible today,
he says.
Chris Miller deals with Lotus Notes daily as a
senior systems manager at Catalyst Solutions
Group in St. Louis. He says he is "thank ful"
that Lotus is not including retraction
capabilities in the upcoming Notes 5.0 and
Domino 5.0 releases. Besides what he
envision s as administrative headaches, Miller
sees such features creating false impressions
among workers as to who owns what when it
comes to corporate e-mail.
"You never actually own the message as long
as it exists somewhere on a company
machine, whether it be local or on the
server," Mill er says. "Even drafts can be
read, and now companies are coming out
with policies on the ability to open an
employee's mail file whe never they see fit."
Miller is unconvinced by anecdotes arguing
the usefulness of retraction.
"If it comes to leaving something out, then
send another complete message or
addendum," he says.
Lotus believes that Miller's opinion represents
the majority viewpoint among its customers.
"Retraction is really a double-edged sword,"
says Lance Shaw, a Notes product manager.
The sophisticated replication capabilities an d
mobile support found in Notes and Domino
virtually guarantee that a message sent to a
significant number of recipients could not b e
retracted from all of them, he maintains.
"Generally, the majority of our customers are
saying that if we can't guarantee they can
do retraction completely, then it's somewha t
futile," Shaw adds.
Jim Santiago, assistant vice president of
information services at AEW Capital
Management in Boston, currently oversees a
GroupWise s hop and also has recent
experience with Notes.
"Notes is like the U.S. post office: Once you
e-mail your message, it's gone," Santiago
says. "GroupWise does give you the ability t
o take back a message, but the fact is
unless that person is out of the office, they
will probably read it before you delete it."
While he likes using retraction for
rescheduling purposes, Santiago also believes
the feature undermines the notion that
companies, not employees, actually own the
e-mail.
<<Network World -- 11-02-98, p. 37>>
[Copyright 1998, Network World] |
