Friday, April 04, 2008

If we didn't log on how much email would we get?

We all get lots of email. One reason is that we respond to it. When I go out of town I set in place a vacation program and do not log on (or I log on but do not respond to anything--- unless its REALLY important- a slippery slope). How much email do I get? What are the factors?
  1. In 1998 I went to Italy for 6 weeks and did not log on at all. I came back to roughly 300 emails. (Very little Spam). This was far less than I thought I would get. The reason: Since I didn't respond and my vacation program said I was out of town, people did not re-email.
  2. In 2007 I was on vacation for 11 days over Christmas/New Years and predicted I would get roughly 100 emails. Much to my surprise I got exactly 100 emails. Part of the reason it was so low was that it was most schools winter break. I predict that this will be less true over time- people seem to be working 24/7 and technology is allowing them to.
  3. I was out of town and off of email from March 30 until April 3 (the last few days). I got exactly 150 emails. About 10% was from ORBITZ confirming my flights.
  4. My spam filters are pretty good- most of the email that got through was not spam. Before I had good spam filters I would get lots of spam AND lots of bounced email when my spam was responded to by my vacation program which then got a bounce.
When I am at a conference I try to avoid logging on. I'm there to learn things, meet people, doing stuff I can't do normally. There is very little important email that needs to be dealt with now. CCC08 will be an exception as I expect there will be email telling me that there aren't enough bagels or whatnot.

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