Email Lists
by Alan R. Cohen
Lisa uses email daily; she understands the benefits of email.
At work she sees how her company uses this tool to distribute information. From home, she see the communication benefits of this tool; it is one of the easiest ways to keep in touch with friends and family.
Lisa is also familiar with email lists. An email list is a collection of email addresses grouped under one name. When somebody sends an email to the group name, all the members of that list (the email addresses grouped under that name), receive that email message. When somebody responds to the message, that reply is sent to all members.
In work, Lisa is on the marketing email list. This list allows the marketing department to share information.
Lisa understands the benefits of an email list, but how does she start one? She decides to search the Internet; she enters email lists into a search engine. This query returns a variety of web sites; however, one catches her interest - www.thefreesite.com/Email_Freebies/.
This site lists links to many free email services sites. She found three sites that allow her to create email lists: ListBot and egroups. A friend of Lisa's told her about another email service, Topica.
Listbot and Topica allow you to just create a mailing list.
egroups, in addition to creating a mailing list, provides some other functionality:
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Members can upload files for list members to download. This allows Lisa and other members to share documents and files with other members of the group.
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Members can share a calendar for scheduling events and meetings.
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Lisa, the list owner, can conduct polls about different issues.
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Members can list links to pertinent and related sites.
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Members can create a database to share information. For example, Lisa finds this useful to share phone numbers of city employees, and listing which city departments are to be contacted for specific actions.
![](Symb075c00b700c800000000.gif) Members can use a private chatroom to discuss issues online in "real time". This chat room is private; only members of the email list can use it. Lisa finds this utility useful for having meetings. None of the members need to leave home; they have a "virtual meeting" via the Internet.
There are three types of email lists: Announcement, Discussion, and Moderated.
An announcement list allows only the list owner to send messages. Lisa can use this for two important tasks, sending meeting announcements or important updates to the group, and to send the Internet Education Project's newsletter to all members.
A discussion list allows everybody to send email to the group, and to respond to email sent to the group. Lisa will use this type of list as the heart of the group.
A moderated list allows the list owner to review a message and then determine if it should be sent out to the other members. Currently, Lisa doesn't have a use for this type of list. However, she can see how it may be useful in the future, if she determines that certain messages should be routed only to her public relations person, other messages for specific committees, and so on.
Email lists are very useful. Not only are they excellent tools for communication, but members don't have to log on to the Internet to get the information; the list automatically sends the message to each member.
Do you know of other email list services? Do you subscribe to an interesting email list that discusses a political or social issue? Do you use an email list in a unique way?
If so, please fill out the following form and share your information with me.
Copyright 2001 Alan R. Cohen. All Rights Reserved
|