When To Use Email & When Not To

I think the “Are most participants physically co-located” and “Is the issue fast and easy to resolve? should be switched. Just because you are co-located doesn’t mean you should just assume face-to-face, IM should come first.

It is missing one thing: POTS. The interruptive nature of 1-to-1 telephone and IM are similar, but telephone is a lot quicker for anything but yes/no answers.

Hi, as a tech guy at an ISP I have to confirm Dave Pollard point of view. He could extend this chart with something like “Does the message has to get to the receiver guaranteed and in tie – eg. to win an contract?” -> Don’t use a EMail – use a fax instead!

You forgot “Are you trying to send large files (photos) or files of indeterminate size?”
-> Gmail, FTP or Chat file transfer.

If you need a flowchart to know when to use e-mail, you have already lost the battle. This is far too complicated to provide value.

Uh, what about SMS?

I think I’ll print it out on linoleum and tile my kitchen with it :)

Hi,
I liked the very way to show this modern way by communications by flow-chart. Congrats.

You forgot “Does the information involve a string of numbers and/or a URL?”

saying URL’s over the phone died in 1997.

thanks, yes cimcime fena degil hele birde linkleri ekliyorlarya süper oluyor.

Very nice and impressive diagram. It quite oriented towards new technologies and leaves absolutely no room to letter writing. I wonder why that is. There should be some at least a few cases where writing a letter is more appropriate.