Unfortunately, the global nature of business, it is impossible to conduct face to face meetings for each communication. What are the alternatives? Specifically, what are the alternatives offered by technology?

E-mail – The starting point
email benefits are numerous and well known, and include (but are not limited to):
• Email is an excellent mechanism for disseminating information to people. It is fast and profitable.

• It is incredibly easy – you can easily communicate across time zones.

• Provides a useful means of electronic paper.

• You can save a lot of time because most of the fluff that surrounds a phone call (social niceties) are seen as unnecessary emails.

• It allows recipients to read and respond to messages in their own time.

• The wording, grammar and punctuation in an e-mail can be viewed and edited before sending.

But email has its limitations:

• Their lack of social niceties is a double-edged sword. Without the benefit of communication signals, it is sometimes difficult to interpret the tone of an e-mail, and this may lead to conflicting messages.

• Not ideal for critical communication. For many people, e-mails are not “real time” communication. Everyone that e-mail without the recipient sitting at the bottom of the list. Because email is so easy to ignore, are also easy to forget.

• Paradoxically, the distribution of the effectiveness of e-mail has been one of the main obstacles to effective communication. It is so easy to send e-mails – and they are so anonymous – that our inboxes are flooded with spam. Accordingly, emails are viewed with suspicion. It is sometimes difficult to identify legitimate e-mails, but it is very easy to reach on Delete.

• Because email senders are often geographically (and often culturally) distant from their recipients, they have no immediate auditory and visual cues to help personalize the message he wrote.

But it is not necessary to “throwing the baby with the bathwater.” Email is an excellent solution for the communication needs of many. And for those who are not ready to deal, not the latest, most appropriate technologies that are built for the job. . .

Web 2. 0 Technologies – the perfect complement
Web 2. 0, a term coined by O’Reilly Media (a media company in U.S.) in 2004 refers to a second generation of Internet-based services that allow people to collaborate and share information online in new ways.

Web 2. 0 technologies are well defined in www. wikipaedia. org, suggesting that these sites allow users of sites (the members) to create and share content, including exploration and discussion of ideas, opinions, initiatives and issues. Web 2. 0 is communication. It is the evolution of the Internet in an infinite library of static pages in a world of endless conversations. These pages may be limited to individuals (eg, executive), or open to all members. The only difference is that the interaction takes place in cyberspace, and those of decision making can be sitting behind a keyboard anywhere in the world.

It is important that readers understand the message on a web 2. 0, communication is not only determined by the editor, but also by the responses (eg comments) of the hearing. In addition, the true message of the editorial tends to be much more fluid, and also by the responses from the audience. In other words, the web 2. 0 Services are much more like conversations face to face than any other communication technology to them.

So what are these new technologies we should look? The two most notable “wiki” and “blogs”. The following definitions are http://www. wikipedia. org, an online encyclopaedia developed as a wiki.

• Wikis – A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, delete or edit or modify the content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaboration.

• Blogs – A blog, which is often on the blog, is a type of online journal that can express their opinion on something. Blogs often provide commentary or news and information on a particular topic. A typical blog combines text, images and links to other blogs, web pages and other media. Blogs are usually text based, but can include photos, videos or audio (podcasts). Blogs can be presented in a manner that creates a conversation between users. For example, see Sydney Morning Herald Travel Blog

uses Web 2. 0

As face to face social gatherings and forums, online chat rooms attract a wide range of participants willing to engage, entertain, friendship, advice and conferences.

It was reported in The Australian (Tuesday, August 8, 2006) that social computing element of Web 2. 0 has been recently adopted by the U.S. government. U.S. State Department has started including blogs and other Web 2. 0 concepts to deliver public information to citizens. They also used the wiki style services to improve information to enable small expert communities to improve counseling services.

The same article reported that all the information and advice on key Australia, Australian Government Information Management Office, had begun to experiment with using blogs, wikis and other 2 Web. 0 technologies.

mushrooms new online social networks are becoming more niche, ideal for member organizations and the NFP sector.

Other Useful Technologies

• SMS – Short Message Service (SMS) is a service available on most digital mobile phones (and other mobile devices such as Pocket PC, or even desktop computers) that permits the sending of short messages between mobile phones, other handheld devices and even landline telephones.

• Podcasting – Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, like audio or video programs via the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices, personal computers .

• Webinars – Web conferencing is used to hold group meetings or live presentations over the Internet. In the early years of the Internet, the terms “web conferencing” and “computer conferencing” were often used to refer to group discussions conducted in a message board (via posted text messages), although the term evolved to refer specifically to “live” or “synchronous” meetings, while the posted message variety of discussion is called a “forum” message board “or” bulletin board “.

A webinar is a seminar which will take place on the World Wide Web. It is a type of web conferencing. Unlike a Webcast, which is the transmission of information in one direction only, a webinar is designed to be interactive between the presenter and the audience. A webinar is ‘live’ in the sense that information is transmitted in accordance with an agenda, with a time of beginning and end.

In most cases, the presenter may speak of a standard telephone line, pointing to information presented on the screen and the audience can respond over their own phone, preferably a speakerphone. Although not necessarily considered Web 2. 0, webinars can also be a useful mechanism for information distribution and discussion among members of grassroots organizations and SMS can provide important or urgent confirmations. Conclusion

Email is – and remains – a very useful tool for communication and practice. In fact, with the emergence of new technologies that are more direct, more immediate, or rather face to face, by e-mail has been improved. As businesses supplement their email usage with other communication technologies, e-mail is increasingly reserved for those who are perfectly integrated communications.