Cyberspace - February 1998

We at Sage feel e-mail is still the "killer app" of all things Internet - even including the Web. E-commerce is still in its infancy. Banner ads are debatably passe. Web research is only beginning to catch on. But for those who have been online for more than a day or two, e-mail has probably wormed its way - if not into our hearts - certainly into our day-to-day routines.

Thus, The Sage Letter has now devoted two issues to e-mail. Last month we looked at the part of it most of us feel we can do without: spam, the downside. This month, we offer the upside of e-mail - the part that many of us are increasingly finding we cannot do without - e-newsletters.

Some 'Net users know them as one-way "listservs." Unlike e-mail "discussion groups" for which subscribers supply all the content - e-mailing their comments to the listserver, which sends them in bulk back to the subscriber list - newsletters simply go from publisher to subscriber, via one e-mail message to the listserver. Many of these e-newsletters have companion Web sites (like ours), where newsletters are archived. Others are available only in e-mail form.

In the past year you may have heard about "push" vs. "pull" - a somewhat obscure debate among 'Net professionals about the best way to distribute information on the 'Net. E-newsletters, listservs, and products like PointCast represent "push" (information that conveniently lands in an e-mailbox or a PointCast-like screensaver) vs. the "pull" of info in Web sites that have to keep luring, or pulling, you back. To cover all the bases, many publishers and broadcasters do both push and pull, publishing both e-mail products and Web sites.

The e-mail variety of newsletter has become a habit to many 'Netizens - feeding their professional or avocational interests, keeping them informed, giving them virtual community, or just offering them information they can't find elsewhere from the best possible sources: people just like them. Here's this month's rundown:

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Sage's Top Five e-Newsletters

These are the best we've found for several reasons: 1) They're a habit - truly useful - to their subscribers; 2) they make good use of the electronic medium (convenience, timeliness); 3) they're true to their medium with their informal, easygoing, unstuffy style; and 4) they're free.

Special categories

Sage's Top 5 News Newsletters

For the educators among us

Honorable mention
We give these honorable mention because they're the companion newsletters to some sites that offer parents useful information, resources, and community.

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Interview with an avid e-newsletter reader
Dan Bentson-Royal is technology coordinator at La Center School District No.101 in La Center, Wash. Dan describes La Center as "a small school district of about 1,300 students." Besides doing purchasing research for high-tech equipment, configuring servers, maintaining e-mail accounts, and troubleshooting problems with computers and the network, Dan is also a one-man Web and software information clearinghouse. "That's one reason why they have an educator serving in my job," he says. People come to me and say, 'I need some reading software,' or 'I need something great on the Civil War.' I serve as a resource that way. Hopefully, my perspective from having been in the classroom helps to integrate technology [into classroom work] rather than just put computers on desks."

But that's just one of the two professional hats Dan wears. During the other half of his school time he's band director for grades 5 through 8. He's also a father of four, including twins, a soccer coach and cub scout leader. That gives you a feel for why electronic newsletters are useful to him. He's technology fluent, has little spare time, and he needs to stay informed (we have a feeling many of you can relate!).

He first discovered e-newsletters when somebody forwarded him a copy of the Internet Tourbus a couple of years ago. He's since forwarded it to many contacts. "There's a lot of good stuff that comes across there, and it's such a general [newsletter] that people outside of education can find it interesting. I think the two guys who write it have a nice writing style. They're very competent and yet very accessible - no techie-only, high-brow tone.... My best search engines come out of there."

We digressed and asked him what those search engines are. "The two I probably use the most are Dogpile, which I learned about from Tourbus, and SavvySearch. I pretty much stick to those multi-search engines. When I go to Dogpile I can just put in key words and get a lot of hits.... When I need to specify, I'll go to another one, like Alta Vista. They all have their strengths and weaknesses." Dan added that the way to get the most out of search-engine work is to get to know one or two very well. That way, you maximize their strengths. "They all have their strengths and weaknesses," he said, and "you can't possibly learn all of them."

Then we moved on to his favorite newsletters. Besides Tourbus, they are:

Finally, we asked him why he finds this "push" form of information delivery indispensable - the word he used. "The thing you can't beat is the convenience. I just log onto my e-mail and there are things I've requested, tailored to my interests; I don't have to go looking for the information. They've broadened my horizons a bit - but they're also related to my primary interests." We asked him if he worries he's missing something he hasn't asked for, the way conventional media package information. "I don't worry about that that much - I'm still exposed to the regular media. When there's time I'll look at a Newsweek.... I don't have time to read the paper anymore. I've got kids at home, a job that's very consuming. But these newsletters are like a vitamin pill. For example, because of my work I need to know a lot about Apple Computers. That's not information I'm going to get from my local newspaper.... The great thing about newsletters is that the information's distilled down."

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Just for fun, when we e-mailed Robert Seidman to ask for some bio material, we asked him why he likes e-newsletters. Here's what he told us:

"What I like about electronic newsletters is mainly three things: One, I usually can get the delivery of my choice (e-mail, Web, etc.) and read it when and how I want. Two, they are often very informative. Three, they are often personalized. Beyond the information, you get a sense of the writer, what he/she is about. Reading their newsletters is sort of like they are holding a conversation with you. So it's also about finding personalities you can trust and relate to."

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On a lighter e-note (dated Feb. 14)
It's not too late for you and your kids to send an electronic Valentine (if you haven't already!). Here are some sites we found for a little free, but sometimes mushy, fun (the cards are free, in all cases here, and the instructions are easy):

E-cards.com's e-Valentines - E-Cards says every card sent from their site benefits the World Wildlife Fund. Choose from 12 images. Our favorites are "Animated Flower," by Raymond Paynter.

Blue Mountain Arts's Musical Valentines and Musical Flower Shop (sending a card with animated flowers - you select whether to send a pre-written poem or one you compose yourself! Remember, poetic license is perfectly acceptable :-] ).

Iluvyou.com's customizable Valentine cards - just fill out a form, choosing art, messages, etc., and submit.

123greeting.com's selection of cards in 16 Valentine categories - from pictures of chocolates to flower images to marriage proposals (hmmm).

And from across "the pond," Blueberry.co.uk's Valentines. These people have taste; the graphics are beautiful. But we surfed all over the site and could nowhere find a clear description of Blueberry's business (a little annoying); we wanted to know more about these people with the taste. As best we can tell, they're a glorified (techno-savvy) graphic design shop.

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Dinner-table talk
This is a new department for The Sage Letter. It started in Sage Extra!, a shorter weekly missive we e-mail our subscribers, with commentary and news items we find of interest to parents. In Dinner-Table Talk each week, we bring up an issue or development families might want to discuss over dinner. Who knows? It might even provide fodder for current and future debate-team members! We also invite subscribers to send in their perspective on the topic - or what their family learned from discussing it.

In one Sage Extra! last month, we mentioned a story in Wired News about the announced intention of Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona to require that schools getting federal funding for Internet connectivity install 'Net-screening software on all connected computers. The senator hasn't put his intention into any legislation yet. If he does, free-speech advocates say the requirement would be unconstitutional - that it would be a form of censorship (and who decides what to screen out and what are the criteria, anyway?). We asked our subscribers what they thought of such a move.

Subscriber Janet Cook, a grade-school teacher, e-mailed us about her school district's Internet-use policy. She didn't say, but we suspect Janet feels it might be an alternative to what Senator McCain is suggesting (hope we got that right, Janet). Here's what she wrote:

"Our district has a very strict policy about what students may and may not do on-line. Students must only use it for research or specific activities. If they are caught going to a site unrelated to their classwork, they lose COMPUTER privileges (not just Internet privileges) for the REST of the YEAR. Needless to say, they are pretty good about following the rules."

We e-mailed Janet back asking if she thinks a screening-software requirement would be a lazy form of student protection. Her answer was....

"With a limited number of computers, all in one place, [Internet use] is fairly easy to monitor. And the way middle schoolers tattle on each other, there's little doubt we'd find out quickly enough if they weren't! Even at our high school, I never had a problem with the kids. At home, mine are too young yet to do much, but so far our rule is you can only be on-line with a parent in the room. We don't use the screening program MSN offers - most big services offer something. I'm not sure if we'll turn it on or not. I do make it clear that the browser keeps a history of sites visited and I do check it periodically, so if they do stray, we can know it."

If legislation requiring schools to screen Web sites does get written, we imagine a lot more research will be going into it than what Senator McCain's office appears to have done so far. We hope they talk to educators and parents like Janet.

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Places to find newsletter and listserv listings on the Web:

NewslettersOnline, for e-mail newsletters, so far lists only a handful of them, but makes thousands of individual articles available for download on either a pay-per-view or subscription basis.

A small directory of online newsletters which intends to grow (only 49 listed by the time we uploaded this issue)

Netscape's "Inbox Direct" listing of newsletters having circulations of 20,000 or more (we think the 20,000+ figure can also apply to the magazines that publish some of these newsletters.

A listing we ran across on the new and useful Northern Light search engine for newsletters on Christian topics

Tile.Net - offers a search engine for Internet discussion lists (listservs), newsgroups, and other non-Web information sources.

Liszt - a directory of 84,792 publicly accessible e-mailing lists (listservs) and other sources. This one's more like Yahoo!, while Tile.Net is more like HotBot or Excite.

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We always appreciate getting your feedback on these newsletters - or any information or views you have on the subjects we've chosen. We'll be happy, with your permission, to publish your views in a future issue or in Sage Extra! E-mail us at feedback@sageway.com.

Next month: TV and the Web - how some broadcasters are creating whole new reservoirs of usefulness to their audiences by using both media intelligently.

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