dean's web chat on the AIMR Web Site

I gave a couple of speeches for AIMR (the Association for Investment Management and Research) on Internet research in the last few years. (The transcript of one, given in London in 1996, "Emerging Markets Research—Must You Be There?," is posted in "Speeches.") These, plus the overwhelming interest in using the Internet, have lead to a major effort by our professional group to teach people how to use it.

My friends at AIMR asked if I would assist as they launch a new web service for their worldwide constituency of investment managers . . . a service about useful applications of this internet-tiger they’ve got by the tail. As we try to gain our bearings with this tiger charging forward, we want to explore interest in the technology and showcase the best practices and where they’re taking the industry.

So, in my role as investigator and reporter (I fancy myself as "the anchorman"), I’ve started writing a monthly column to appear on AIMR’s Web Site at <http://www.aimr.com>. AIMR is allowing monthly postings of the drafts of "dean’s webchat" to preview here.

We anticipate the columns will be accompanied by an online course (in process) and a major multimedia extravaganza/video-talk at the Association’s annual meeting in the Spring . . . I’ll be speaking from Weesen (Switzerland), while the meeting is held in the States.

So here's the first installment of...

dean’s web chat 1

Confessions of an E-mail Junkie

Welcome to this maiden issue of "web chat." Together, you and I will explore productive ways to use the web in our craft. But it should not be all work—the web is a fun and exciting place to be. It lets us do the normal things we do, but better, and find ways we thought beyond our capabilities. It is today’s emerging market for analysts . . . and the analyst’s access to the remotest of geographic emerging markets.

We’ll explore this turbulent wonder in comment, mostly laced with web links and responses to questions . . . sent to <xxxxxxx>. Don’t expect a highly technical offering. I simply want to explore what’s new and share my findings. To those who have a firm grasp of the more technical aspects, I defer.

Now I’m going to talk about e-mail in the first comment. I already hear you: "Hey, you just said this is about the web and now you’re giving me e-mail?" Yes, I know there is Internet mail, and we don’t think about our daily e-mail as having much to do with the web. But it does.

I admire the wonderful Victorian letters that people exchanged in centuries past . . . pages of thoughtful insights, written beautifully in long-hand. The correspondents benefited from these soulful contacts, devoting untold portions of their lives to these enriching exchanges.

Bang! Today’s version of the Victorian letter is punchy, bulleted, not geographically bound. It is as free to send something to Hong Kong as to the next office. Cost-free and time-free . . . time zones don’t count. Gone is telephone tag. Gone are those calls by assistants setting times for phone calls weeks ahead. And here are instant affinity groups—it is as easy to copy people as a click of the mouse.

I receive about 75 e-mails a day. About 1/3 are ongoing conversations—they build with a reply/repeat button that copies everything said before (or just selected parts), adding my comments to the thread of the conversation—today’s style of dialog that used to take place while walking around the office. About 1/3 have information content that doesn’t require a reply, usual copies from people who keep my informed about something. And about 1/3 are "push" notices—information I’ve asked to receive for program information and news summaries (as well as some unsolicited junk mail that’s promptly deleted . . . no trees wasted).

I started using Compuserve as my main mailer because it had the best worldwide network of communication sites. (That may no longer be true.) To log into my mailbox is easy, cheap, and the same, whether in Capetown, Zurich or Boston. Its mail program handles e-mail and fax separately or in combination with great ease. (It claims to handle paper mail as well but I’ve not been able to run it the couple of times I’ve tried in the past six months . . . but who needs paper anyway?) And I use e-mail Assistant as a spell & grammar checker and selective quote option.

I now communicate about 80% by e-mail, 10% by fax, 8% by phone, and the remaining trace on paper. I’ve been using an ISDN (digital and fast) for a couple of years but am now quite pleased with the speed of a new 56k modem. These new modems are supported in the X2 version by both Compuserve and AOL.

AOL (which just bought Compuserve) has an excellent and rapidly growing global network that is useful for financial analysts. It is equally easy to use. Its file cabinet structure does not appeal to me. One major limitation is its capability to only attach a single file to a message (CompuServe has a high aggregate limit but handles groups of files). Microsoft is coming on strongly, but its network is still too small for me. Both AOL and Compuserve now support the new 56k speeds which approach the high speeds of digital lines (ISDN) using regular analog phone lines.

These services are an expensive solution, perhaps a few hundred dollars per month, compared to other alternatives. But they have the advantage of keeping their members up to date on technology, especially AOL, and provide good tech support.

Many members will have e-mail access through their own companies, perhaps with Notes or an Intranet arrangement. Generally these are limited by firewall (security) concerns and are unable to keep up with the latest technology. One answer might be to have your own e-mail account outside the firewall. And it may be possible to have mail forwarded from your company mailbox to a mailbox at an outside e-mail provider.

With a local Internet service provider (ISP) you can do the same thing as an online service, in one place, for about 1/4 the cost, depending up phone charges. And you can get a number of free, good e-mail programs. Eudora Light is one of the most popular and it’s free . . . the company’s idea is that you will pay a small sum to upgrade to the professional version.

Touch-typing is helpful but, as any good newspaper reporter knows, not essential. Hunt-and-peck works and on some of the small palmtops like HP 320LX and Toshiba Libretto used for travel, becomes necessary. But things just go faster with all the fingers in play. For those who are fast and reasonably accurate at the keyboard, the spell and grammar checkers that can be added to Compuserve and AOL cover the glitches. And when I do a Word document, Microsoft puts the spell and grammar checker there on the fly, automatically if I wish. Besides I like having MS’ version of Albert Einstein act as my online buddy to answer all my natural language questions.

The structures of organizations and the functions of people are changing. Those who were secretaries can really begin to function as assistants. The secretarial drudge work of typing and retyping drafts is a simple job that most of us can do ourselves, with maybe a little formatting polish by a pro at the end.

This form of communication is changing the world. Distance among work groups is immaterial and time does not matter. Written language is becoming more conversational. We are at the brink of moving from the 90% spoken word to written word conversion programs. In just a few years we shall see voice recognition in general use which will obsolete my typing skills. And, just ahead, we see the early signs of automatic language conversion. In the last five years, e-mail communication has taken us a quantum leap forward in business applications . . . the next five could well propel us to multi-lingual.

That makes it worthwhile getting started early. After all, our business is all about communication.

Dean LeBaron
September 24, 1997

e-mail <deanlebaron@compuserve.com>

website <http://www.deanlebaron.com>