An API Between Us A modest proposal for rethinking email
in your organiza6on
Jessica DeVita
Email as a UI 3 Uis: • Human – Computer (UI/UX) • Computer – Computer (API) • Human – Human – In person – E-‐mail – …
Email – Biggest problem hHps://www.flickr.com/photos/will-‐lion/2625715043/
subject: FW: Feb 6th GO Level Demo-‐ technical details and streaming test tomorrow ALL, Thanks for your par6cipa6on in this past week's working group. As I men6oned at the kickoff mee6ng, the goal of this demo is to consolidate and present the various research Foo has been funding through your respec6ve organiza6ons in one 30 to 60 minute demonstra6on at the GO level. Following our working group mee6ng, myself and the FooBar team met with ABCD (demo host) at Celery. AHached you will find the most recent "WORKING DRAFT" of the scenario in Word or Powerpoint format. The next key date is 23 Dec where we would like to perform a remote demo (test streaming of data to the main XY server). Mr. Cabbage will be your POC for this and should be sending some XY informa6on out to you as a follow-‐up to this email. Mr. Cabbage will also serve as the lead integrator for this effort in its en6rety. Following the remote demo, our next key date will be 14 Jan where we will do an on-‐site dry run of this scenario. There will be several telecons in between; just wanted to get the 14 Jan date out for travel planning purposes. Planning for 14 Jan also gives the team a couple of days to prep for 16 Jan should the actual demo get pushed up. Please advise sooner than later if you have concerns suppor6ng this demo. I will be on leave next week, but you may contact Dr. Dog or Mr. Mouse (Cc Column) for any concerns regarding this effort. I will also be available via cell (...) to assist as needed.
Thx
• Subject: Feb Demo Inputs • Project X team,
• Now that we have all had a day or so to think about was presented wrt the upcoming FEB demo, I thought it would be good to get everyone’s thoughts, concerns, and/or recommenda6ons as we work a very 6ght schedule. I have not yet see the updated slides from Ralph but I think we want to insure that whatever we commit to, is solid, valuable and shows well with respect to our team. Again, with the 6ght schedule perhaps we could have some exchange over the Holiday and start gelng feedback over to Cherise and Joe ASAP.
• subject: Project X charging
• Hi All, • As you may be aware, we just wrapped up the somware delivery for task 5 in
Project X. Thank you and congratula6ons to everyone who put in long, omen painful, hours on that effort.
• As a follow on to that effort, we received a small amount of funding to address a couple of specific tasks related to our processing codes. It amounts to ~$X for a six month PoP.
• With this limited funding for very specific tasking, we will need to be very careful with our spending, ensuring that we are able to accomplish our objec6ves. We have put together a staffing plan toward this end. There may be tweaks here and there as we find that more or less hours are required for certain tasks/people. However, in the mean6me we ask that everyone pay close a*en,on to their charging profiles, and only charge as directed.
• Charging profiles are new as of today, so even if you looked yesterday, please look again. Please let Joe, Al, Susan, Larry, or I know if you have specific concerns about your ability to complete your tasking with the assigned hours (prior to charging!). Please also let us know if you do not need all of the hours assigned to you – others do.
• Thanks for your help in making this new effort a success. Please let me know if you have any ques6ons.
• Sarah
subject: Request: Project X, only charge as directed Hi All, For the next 6 months, please pay close aHen6on to your charging profiles (updated today), and only charge as directed. Details: As you may be aware, we just wrapped up the somware delivery for task 5 in Project X. Thank you and congratula6ons to everyone who put in long, omen painful, hours on that effort. As a follow on to that effort, we received a small amount of funding to address a couple of specific tasks related to our processing codes. It amounts to ~$X for a six month PoP. With this limited funding for very specific tasking, we will need to be very careful with our spending, ensuring that we are able to accomplish our objec6ves. We have put together a staffing plan toward this end. There may be tweaks here and there as we find that more or less hours are required for certain tasks/people. However, in the mean6me we ask that everyone pay close aHen6on to their charging profiles, and only charge as directed. Charging profiles are new as of today, so even if you looked yesterday, please look again. Please let Joe, Al, Susan, Larry, or I know if you have specific concerns about your ability to complete your tasking with the assigned hours (prior to charging!). Please also let us know if you do not need all of the hours assigned to you – others do. Thanks for your help in making this new effort a success. Please let me know if you have any ques6ons. Sarah
hHp://theoatmeal.com/comics/email_monster
I hate email People are terrible at it It could kill us (really)
hHp://6psindonesia.com/gangguan-‐pernafasan-‐screen-‐apnea/
hHps://www.flickr.com/photos/68958307@N00/
every 6me you email someone, you’re handing them a pebble. That pebble seems impossibly small to you because you’re the most important person in the world, but you have no idea how many other pebbles that person was given today. What if you made that person completely lose hope because you sent them four pebbles in the last week and it’s unsustainable for them? hHps://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/merlin-‐mann
A rat presses a lever that gives a reward every 100x it’s pressed – it’s very exci,ng Give a rat a lever that gives a reward randomly – now that’s so exciting that you can take away the reward and they’ll keep pressing the lever until they die (check your email again, go ahead)
hHp://ebus101.com/what-‐is-‐opportunity-‐cost/
hHps://www.flickr.com/photos/vpickering/
Replying to messages diverted workers for an average of 10 minutes, and they used the break to cycle through a range of applications, another 10-20 minutes lost. Sometimes the diversion lasted for hours. - Iqbal and Horvitz, 2007 study of Disruption and recovery of computing tasks @ Microsoft
Kin Lane -‐ APIevangelist.com
Thinking about API’s
REST (structured, precise) • Takes some up-‐front planning • Easy to process (back-‐end) vs NLP (ad hoc) • LiHle planning • Very complex back-‐end processing
API Kinds of requests: • Ask for informa6on (Ques6on) • Provide informa6on (FYI) • Request ac6on (Request)
Subject LineSubject [Type] [Description] [END(optional)] Question: How much does the beer cost? FYI: Cost of wine has increased by $12 [END] Request: Buy Fortaleza Blanco Tequila [END]
Change the subject line as soon as the content of the email chain changes.
Body of the Email -Get to the point quicklyin the 1st sentence
-Expectation for answer• Yes/no• Date reply needed by
-Detail• Further explanation
Subject: FYI: Adding 2 adaptors to the Fromdibulator
Thank you!
[email protected] Twitter: @ubergeekgirl
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