Saturday, February 8, 2014

A Comprehensive list of Internet Policy Laws and Resources - via Netiquette IQ


There are many Internet laws that have been covered in this site. Here is an excellent compendium of many more. Hopefully none of our readers will be effected nor need to know them. The NCSI site listed below is a great reference for the many state laws which are in place to provide protection for all netcitizens!

Privacy Policies: Government Websites

http://www.ncsl.org

At least 17 states require government Web sites or state portals to establish privacy policies and procedures, or to incorporate machine-readable privacy policies into their Web sites.
StateStatute
ArizonaAriz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 41-4151, 41-4152
ArkansasArk. Code § 25-1-114
CaliforniaCal. Govt. Code § 11019.9
ColoradoColo. Rev. Stat. § 24-72-501, 24-72-502
DelawareDel. Code tit. 29 § 9017C et seq.
IowaIowa Code § 22.11
IllinoisIll. Rev. Stat. ch. 5 § 177/15
MaineMe. Rev. Stat. tit. 1 § 14-A § 541- 542
MarylandMd. State Govt. Code § 10-624 (4)
Michigan2003 Mich Pub. Acts, Act 161 (sec. 572 (7))
MinnesotaMinn. Stat. § 13.15
MontanaMont. Code Ann. § 2-17-550 to - 553
New YorkN.Y. State Tech. Law § 201 to 207
South CarolinaS.C. Code Ann. § 30-2-40
TexasTex. Govt. Code Ann. § 10-2054.126
UtahUtah Code Ann. § 63D-2-101, -102, -103, -104
VirginiaVa. Code § 2.2-3800, - 3801, -3802, -3803

Additional Resources

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In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ. 


I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.


Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace. 


 



      Friday, February 7, 2014

      15 Rules of When to Italicize in Email – Via Netiquette IQ




      15 Rules of when to italicize in email – Via Netiquette IQ

      Italics and the English grammatical rules of when to use them are one of the most flexible for the language. Normally, even the most subjective use of these is not considered wrong. Nonetheless, there are guidelines and conventions generally accepted for their use. Today’s blog seeks to list these as well as some other appropriate information.
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      This blog elaborates upon seven points outlined in Anis Siddiqi’s When to Italicize posted on April 7, 2010 featured in The Write Corner.
      1. Emphasis. When you want to put an emphasis, or want a word or phrase to stand out from the rest.  For example:  You mean to say you wrote this?  Do notwrite on the wall.
      2. Words as separate words. When words in a sentence are used as separate words. For example:  Don’t forget to italicize the word hope.  Committee is a word that is often misspelled.
      3. Letters as words. When letters of the alphabet are used as words in a sentence. For example:  Put an X on the spot that needs to be fixed.  Don’t forget to cross your t’s.
      4. Reproduced sounds as words.  Sometimes sounds are reproduced to bring effect to the writing. For example:  Thud, the parcel fell on the ground.  Bzzzzzz… the bee buzzed.
      5. Foreign words. Foreign words and phrases that are unfamiliar to most readers. For example:  The lawyer says it’s a prima facie case.  Namaste,” the Indian man folded his hands in greeting.
      6. Titles. Titles of books, plays, magazines, newspapers, albums, movies, television shows etc. (Holy Books like the Bible, Koran, and others are not italicized.) For example:  Seinfeld is a popular TV program.  He reads the New York Timesevery morning.
      7. Names of vehicles. Italicize names of spaceships, boats, trains etc. that are proper names. For example:  The Titanicsank after hitting an iceberg. The Acelais a fast train.
      Additional Netiquette suggestions:
      8. Titles of artistic works. For example: The Last Supper; The Mona Lisa .
      9. Note. Roman true italic type, oblique type, sans serif and other typefaces do/may not have italic versions
      10. Underscores and italics. Do not use underline and italics at the same time.
      11. Technical Items. For example:  GMO; PTSD.
      12. Use the same font family and size.  For example: The Pieta is a beautiful statue.
      13. Punctuation. Don’t punctuate a comma unless it part of the title. For example: The Acela is a fast train.
      14. Physical quantities and mathematical constants.  For example:  x + y = z.
      15. Internal dialog. Use italics when someone is speaking to themselves. Euclid exclaimed Eureka!
      Keep these points in mind and you will know when to italicize words. If you’re still in doubt, just use standard fonts. 
      Aloha!
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      In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.



      I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.



      Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace. Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

      Thursday, February 6, 2014

      New Network Neutrality Act Legislation - via Netiquette IQ


      There is more news in the saga of the Network Neutrality ruling situation. The Democratic Congress has introduced new legislation to restore what will be some severe restrictions on free bandwidth and equal access on the Internet. These could set limits on content as well. The ruling against the policy was pushed by major Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
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      Posted by

      Democrats in the House and Senate today introduced the Open Internet Preservation Act, a bill that would reinstate now-defunct net neutrality rules that were shot down last month.
      Net neutrality, in its most basic form, is the idea that ISPs must treat all Internet data the same. Under its regime, ISPs are not allowed to selectively speed up or slow down information requested by their customers due to their selective gate-keeping of the services impacted. Or, more simply, Comcast can’t decide that a site you want to load, or a video you want to watch, should be slowed, and content that it prefers, accelerated.
      With last month’s striking of the FCC’s net neutrality ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has changed the landscape of the Internet.
      Those in favor of net neutrality view the regulatory scheme as key to a free, open, and level playing field. Its antagonists decry it as government regulation of something, namely the Internet, which has worked just fine thus far, thank you.
      The Preservation Act — full text here — is short and merely “restores” what was “vacated” by the court’s decision. So it would take us back to where we were in December.
      According to the National Journal, the act has all but no chance of becoming law because “Republicans are almost entirely united in opposition to the Internet rules, meaning the bill is unlikely to ever receive a vote in the GOP-controlled House.” The bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate, but passing merely half the bicameral Congress is roughly as useful as trying to reform your local DMV.
      Other voices were quick to criticize its thrust. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) dismissed it as “counter-productive,” saying that “insisting on stagnation in the essential infrastructure of the Internet is no way to promote innovation and the public interest.”
      The gist of the AEI’s argument, if I can summarize, is that if ISPs are prevented from charging fees to content providers — think Netflix, et al. — it stunts their potential revenues and therefore investment into further infrastructure. This argument is somewhat circular, as the Internet has seen rapid and massive investment in its life while existing under the conditions that the FCC wanted to codify as the regulatory standard.
      The bill’s sponsors see the world slightly differently than the AEI, focusing less on theoretical lost rents from a third-party non-participant to the customer-ISP relationship, and instead hitting on consumer protection and choice:
      “The Internet is an engine of economic growth because it has always been an open platform for competition and innovation. Our bill very simply ensures that consumers can continue to access the content and applications of their choosing online.” Rep. Waxman
      It has always been my view that forcing ISPs to treat all content equally is the correct way to ensure that all voices — the new, the established, the next, and the marginalized — have space. If YouTube had been forced to pay extra carrier fees early in its life, or Netflix for that matter, would they have become the giants they have? If we increase the marginal expense of reaching consumers in a random fashion by granting ISPs that power, we cede the advancement of technology to demonstrably conservative actors.
      And there is a simple question of who decides. If ISPs can censor and slow at will, what can stop activist networks from pushing on those companies to halt what they do not approve of? If a religious group called Comcast complicit in hate speech for delivering content Internet users requested that they found blasphemous, what can Comcast do? We’re removing their shield of “we deliver all to all equally,” which could harm ISPs down the road.
      That the parties exposing themselves to that sort of trouble are the precise parties calling for the end, now I suppose the continuance of the end, of net neutrality is ironic, and sad.
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      In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.



      I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.



      Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace. Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

      Wednesday, February 5, 2014

      5 Difficult Email Habits to Stop - From Netiquette IQ


      Most advice on email Netiquette, including this blog at times, focuses on things which are most apparent. This includes grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.

      It has been stated previously in this blog and addressed more thoroughly in my forthcoming book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" that much of good Netiquette involves establishing good habits and processes. There are many more subtle items which you should be mindful of to assist you in having advanced email skills.

      The following are five items which many senders, even those with high Netiquette skills, find difficulty in doing or often overlook. Here are a first round of five, in no predetermined order.

      1. Using I to begin an email, paragraph or overusing this pronoun in a message

      2. Utilizing too many incomplete or shortened sentences

      3. Inavertently having imperatives or requests which can be misunderstood as commands

      4. Presuming shortened names are appropriate

      5. Giving complete dates, including day, date and month


      Try this simple exercise!

      To see if you are prone or tend to overlook the above five items, do the following. Take the next ten or twenty emails of more than three or four paragraphs which you compose and scan them for the items mentioned. Look for items such as let's, you must (as commands) or a shortened date. Some of the others are more obvious. Some senders, myself included, will find that not using I to begin an email or paragraph can be a challange.
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      In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.



      I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.



      Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace. Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.


      Tuesday, February 4, 2014

      The Best and Worst Fonts For Email From Netiquette IQ




      Do you know what font you used when you sent your last email? Do you think it was the best you could use? How about your last resume? If the resume was rejected (or accepted) do you feel any part of the outcome was due to a typeface you used?

      Recently, I have been doing quite a bit of research (for my forthcoming book) regarding the use of fonts in email. The goal here has been to ascertain if any typefaces can influence someone opening, reading or finishing an email. The more I have examined this, the more I am convinced that the specific font an email sender (or resume writer) uses definitely has an effect. The effect can either be positive or negative. 

      Fonts exist for a reason or their use would diminish. Essentially, what I have concluded is based on numerous studies. There are fonts, primarily serif, which are best suited for readability and others, primarily sans serif, which are best for legibility. 


      In short readability applies to books, magazines, and long documents. Legibility fonts are used for shortened documents, logos, advertisements or headlines. These type of fonts have less "clutter" or detail and allow the recipient or reader to more quickly focus or find intended words or phrases. So, when you compose an email or write a resume you are best to use a legibility font.

      After this research, I compiled the matrix below to assist my readers to optimize their emails to be opened  more often and read. See which work for you. 

      By the way, this blog is written primarily in Arial!




      Best (San Serif)
      Worst (Serif)
      10 Point
      Arial
      Verdana
      Trebuchet
      Garamond

      Times New Roman
      Georgia
      Century

      12 Point
      Arial
      Helvetica
      Trebuchet
      Courier (Monospace)

      Times New Roman
      Century
      Palatino
      Georgia

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      In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.



      I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.



      Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace. Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.