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“Flaming” is, according to this article in today’s New York Times, “thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard [that] would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face.”

This article is an excellent discussion of some reasons why e-mail and IM users flame each other:

• The perception that the Internet is “anonymous”
• The use of anonymous user accounts
• Lack of face-to-face contact
• Time lag between sending a message and receiving a reply

I’ve taught online courses for over a year now, and I’ve developed a new appreciation of these reasons. That’s why I do my best to respond to student e-mail within 24 hours.
The only exception that I have is the weekend and holidays, when I try to take some downtime and recharge.

Response time is one reason that I don’t use WebCT. It’s much easier for me to respond via Gmail, especially if I’m on my PDA. Pipeline and WebCT just won’t work on a PDA.
Also in today’s Times is an article on the European Union’s Data Retention Directive, which will go into effect in 2009. Several European countries are already modifying their laws so that governments can easily track Internet and mobile phone users.

The Netherlands has developed a draft version of their data retention law that would force telecom providers to store GPS information for all mobile voice and data calls. This has become much easier to do with the widespread adoption of GPS technology in mobile handsets and cell towers. Data would be stored for at least 18 months.
A draft version of the German law outlaws anonymous e-mail and forum accounts. Google and many other webmail services require only two pieces of information to open a Gmail account (user id and password). The German law would require a verifiable identity, and the law may be difficult to enforce. As the article points out, this draft is a major surprise as Germany has long been considered a bastion of consumer privacy rights.

As I have often warned students, e-mail and forum posts might be retained for years. It’s always a good idea to save a reply as a draft, and then review it a few minutes later. Writing and sending a caustic reply might seem efficient, but if the message cannot be recalled or canceled, the results may be dramatic.

Photos: Yahoo! News - Building Collapse in Manila: Filipino building inspectors don’t take bribes. Oh, no. “Electric cables burst into flames as an eight-story office building which was leaning precariously for days in one of Manila’s busy commercial districts, collapses Friday July 23, 2004, hours after occupants fled in panic following creaking sounds and bursting water pipes. No injuries were reported but the incident damaged another building across the street.”

Lean on me, when you’re not strong.

USA: Yahoo! News - Flight 93 Passengers Saved Lives on 9/11: As much as I enjoy reading alternative history and what-if stories, reading this page from the 9-11 report made me physically ill. “America would have been even more devastated that sunny late-summer morning — the Capitol aflame or the White House destroyed — if not for a few dozen strangers on an airplane who took the kind of quick, decisive action their government was incapable of on Sept. 11.”

Tech: MSNBC - Video games under the gun: Reminds me of a scene in Fahrenheit 911. “Author Evan Wright ponders the effects of video games on U.S. soldiers in the current Iraq war in his new book Generation Kill. In an endorsement that Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar Games would probably rather not get, he quotes one U.S. soldier as saying an ambush felt just like playing the game. “It felt like I was living it when I seen the flames coming out of windows, the blown-up car in the street, guys crawling around shooting at us,” the soldier says

USA: Associate Burns Bridges With Farewell E-Mail’s Flame: That e-mail forwarding thing is really something, huh? “In what appeared to be a farewell e-mail last week, a Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker associate wrote that he hoped the “smoke from any bridges I burn today [may] be seen far and wide.” At the rate the e-mail is traveling, that won’t be a problem. But now it seems the lawyer may be having regrets.”