E-mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-mail and Digital Communication

This book provides information clearly using questions, providing anecdotes, and offering sample language and examples for composing company email policies. While not substituting for legal counsel this book provides the reader with a working knowledge of laws, how to develop email policies that comply with the law, and the way courts view well fashioned and enforced email usage policies. My edition of this book was printed in 2003 and some of the technology has advanced considerably, but the basic lessons of this easy to read, well organized book are the same today. It is worth a weekend's worth of reading time to anyone in a business concern tasked with formulating computer use and security policies, or anyone potentially liable for misuse of company email.

In a recent review of "The ePolicy Handbook: Designing and Implementing Effective E-Mail, Internet and Software Policies", I wrote asking questions such as "Does your company or organization have a policy that covers writing style in electronic communications? Does your company or organization have cyberinsurance to cover losses attributed to errors or employee misbehavior using your e-mail systems? Does your company or organization offer netiquette training for employees and managers?" In her follow-up book, E-Mail Rules - A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-Mail and Digital Communication, (254 Pages, The American Management Association, 2003), Nancy Flynn takes a narrower view of the management of E-Mail and Digital Communication in the enterprise. Much like her first book, Flynn lays out 37 Rules to follow in establishing and managing these policies. She starts out by establishing a framework to build a case for e-mail management. This section covers the need to reduce liability and exposure, real world legal issues, and spelling pout that e-mail belongs to the employer not the employee. From this point, she goes into specific issues surrounding privacy (very important for international communications and differences in laws), content management, Listserv use, and more. The book also has very good concise discussion about retaining e-mail as business records, different methods of storage, and employee education. Flynn then delves into discussions of E-mail Security and managing alternative technologies such as instant messaging and peer-to-peer networking technologies. Fir this reader, the most important rules are the last two in the book, that deal with employee training as the key to reducing risk, and working to instill a sense of ownership in employees. Without these two items, no policy ever written will work or be effective. Much like her first book though, the only caution for potential readers is that this book also seems to be a lead-in as a commercial for the services and her colleagues as listed in Appendix C. The Scorecard: Par on an average Par 4.

Nancy Flynn is brilliant. Love this book! I also heard she's speaking at two conferences. I'm going to Enterprise Messaging Decisions in Chicago in early May. I think the url is enterprisemessagingdecisions.com. She's also speaking at another conference in June in San Fran. Maybe I'll go to both!

This book covers it all. From email etiquette to how to protect yourself in case of a law suit. Email is a major part of any business --- large and small. And if you're not prepared to handle it; if you don't know how to use it, what to save and what to get rid of, you're going to end out in one big mess.This book can save you a lot of time and money by telling you how to deal with spam, what sort of policies to implement in your company or business, what email etiquette is all about and many other topics.This is a book you should have and use no matter how large or small your business is.Susanna K. HutchesonExecutive Copy Director and OwnerPowerwriting.com LLC