Dear Colleagues:

Please ignore cross-postings. 

The topics of email policy and Internet etiquette or net etiquette (or 
"netiquette" as it is commonly known) regularly come ups on the various 
international recordkeeping-related lists and off-list discussions.  During 
such exchanges, I am often asked to send listers a copy of an informal set of 
guidelines that I have developed and updated over the years.  Some of you 
have suggested that it would be a good resource to place on the Web for easy 
access by professionals when they are contemplating the development or 
updating of email policies.  This has been done and the Barry Associates 
Netiquette Guidelines are now electronically accessible on my website as 
"Barry Associates' Recommended Email and Internet Etiquette (Netiquette) 
Guide", under the HOT TOPICS/Email Issues section.  Look for the <NEW> icon. 
Thanks to everyone who has contributed in some way to these guidelines.  As 
noted in the Guidelines, they belong to no one but to many people.

There will always be some overlap between email policy and netiquette 
guidelines.  However, whereas the focus of email policy is to stipulate 
organizational ground rules for the use of corporate email systems/assets, 
netiquette guidelines are more often a matter of organizational expectations 
for the voluntary exercise of good manners by its employees. In working 
relationships and studies in which I’ve been involved, some people regard the 
establishment of virtually any communications guidelines as a potential 
threat to their freedom of speech and expression of their own individuality, 
a misguided reason for not establishing netiquette guidelines.  Many other 
email users, however, make a point of mentioning that they not only see the 
need for an email or more general communications policy in their 
organizations but would personally welcome and benefit from some behavioral 
guidelines for themselves and the people with whom they work.  As with other 
kinds of behavioral standards (dress, dining, dating, etc.) people have 
different views about what is unacceptable, acceptable, OK and desirable 
depending on their age, sex and level/status in an organization and national 
and organizational cultures.  Because of these differences in thresholds for 
what constitutes reasonable or good behavior, staff will often welcome some 
practical set of reasonable guidelines that can be used (and customized) to 
minimize friction and maximize efficient and effective communications.  For 
this reason, I recommend that netiquette guidelines be established as an 
annex or addendum to email or communications policies.  Please use these 
guidelines in any way that will assist you in your work.

In violation of one of those Netiquette Guidelines – the one that says you 
shouldn’t mix two topics in a single em – I’d like to take this opportunity 
also to confirm that Greg Welsh of Newfoundland was the winner of the 10,000 
visit "gift of appreciation" announced in my April 18, 1999 posting to this 
list as Visitor 10,001, in the absence of a claimant for visit 10,000. You 
will find a very nice write-up about Greg at <www.rbarry.com>: what he does 
in his various lives, how he came upon my website and what he plans to do 
with his US$100 gift of appreciation.  I welcome all of you to read this in 
"Newfoundlander is Barry Deca-Millennium Man" at the top of the main page.  
Congratulations and well wishes to Greg.

Regards,

Rick Barry
www.rbarry.com


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