I've been using email for 20 years! Am I cool yet?

I first used email 20 years ago, but it's been around since the 60's and is older than I am. Back then the Internet I was exposed to was much different. It consisted mainly of educational institutions, muds and IRC. If I was looking for information, I used gopher. If I was interested in the latest cool thing in Newsweek, I pestered whatever expert was mentioned in the article for answers. Researchers had email. If i wanted dirty pictures, I visited a BBS.

I once wrote to some physicists who had published an article about measuring photons. It turned out that where you put your measuring device effected the outcome of the experiment. I had some questions about how this finding might be related to other areas of human experience.

One mailed me a copy of his research, a 12-page equation with an even more befuddling accompanying text. He said he didn't understand a word of what I was trying to communicate. Right away I knew we were on the same page. I couldn't understand him, either.

The Internet has been a source of miscommunication for me ever since. I absolutely love email, but it can get people in trouble. I suppose it's the lack of facial expressions and tone of voice, along with the ease of firing off a response that leads people astray. Sometimes you're just better off picking up a phone and saying hello, which is exactly what I do when the email seems to be headed the wrong direction.

Web sites, well that's another story. I've been building them for a decade and know how they communicate with users.