Date: 10 Sep 93 15:38 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "E-Mail" by Caswell BKEMAIL.RVW 930811 Gage 164 Commander Blvd. Agincourt, ON M1S 3C7 or Carswell/Thomson Professional Publishing One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road Scarborough, ON M1T 3V4 416-609-3800 800-387-5164 fax: 416-298-5094 "E-mail", Caswell,0-7715-5108-8, C$39.95 Certain subtle indications, besides the copyright date of 1988, state that "E-Mail" is a bit behind the times. One is the title; email is almost universally now written without the hyphen. Another is the inclusion of voice mail and facsimile along with text transmission. Yet another is the discussion of Telex and "communicating word processors." It is too bad that the book has not been updated. "E-Mail" is aimed at a much neglected audience: the business executive who may not be very interested in the technology, per se, but only what it can do for the business. The work speaks the language of business, and presents electronic communication in terms of business advantages and functions. Too many of the books on technology aimed at business fail to understand that just because the author is enthused does not automatically mean the audience is interested. There is a definite "corporate" bias in the book which tends to limit some of the discussions. Internet, in the guise of ARPANET, rates only a brief mention; Fidonet, and, indeed, the whole BBS community, is dismissed very tersely. The major thrust is toward proprietary, commercial systems, and, therefore, uses tend to be only "internal" communication channels. "E-Mail" is very well planned. The layout covers the territory in a comprehensive fashion: it is only the details that are missing. An updated version would do well to stick to the same outline, and to flesh out the dated sections with new material. The introductory chapter, "The Challenge", states the general benefits well. This is followed up, in chapter two, with "Benefits and Justifications", well presented, in business terms, with charts and examples. Chapter three, a "Technology Overview", presents a historical look at the development of various communications technologies. Chapters four through eight begin to look at specifics of the technologies, and this is where age begins to show. While the material covering communications links ("Roadways"), the older "messaging" systems, computer messaging systems, computer based communications services, and the systems costs were well researched and presented, five years has changed much of the picture. "Communicating Word Processors" and TWX, while still operating, are of very minor importance now. Chapter nine, on "Computer Conferencing", seems to be somewhat misplaced. The systems primarily emphasized in the rest of the book have little provision for conferencing systems. Nowadays, this chapter would have a very important place in the work, as a resource for business research and contacts. "PCs and E-Mail" and "Voice Mail" appear to be oddities of the topic, presented for completeness' sake and the curious mind. Chapters twelve and thirteen cover "Corporate Mail Networks" and "Planning and Implementing E-Mail". Again, this plays to the emphasis of the book, and is well presented. Chapter twelve could use some newer material on the current situation and less emphasis on X.400. (The author also has a very strong bias against line editors for the composition of messages: given his experience with Envoy 100 this is understandable.) The final chapter needs almost no upgrading: it deals with issues that are more political than technical. The one area which is missing is that of "online etiquette", dealing with the training of new users, and the avoidance of "messaging misunderstandings" and "flames". For those who are already involved in email, this work has little to say. For those companies looking into the possibility for the first time, there is some valuable background and perspectives here. Note, please, that the specifics are limited and now dated. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKEMAIL.RVW 930811 Distribution permitted with this uneditted Telecom Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676