Yes, Vice Chancellor
Dear THOMAS,
We thought you would be interested to learn that, subject to relevant approvals, NUSport will be opening a health and fitness centre inNewcastle's Honeysuckle precinct in 2006. This new city fitness centre,The Forum Harbourside, will offer similar gymnasium, group fitness and private training services and classes to those currently provided on campus at The Forum Sports and Aquatic Centre. In order to fine tunethe mix of products and services to be offered to our members at The Forum Harbourside, we are conducting an online survey of Universitystaff and students.
The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete, and everyperson who completes the survey will go into a draw for a three month Forum PLUS membership valued at $250.
Before we send you the details of how to complete the survey online, we need you to REPLY TO this email to signify your agreement to being part of the survey population. Once the reply is received by the survey administrator you will be sent another email with details of logon id and password.
I hope you will take this opportunity to assist us in providing thevery best health and fitness facilities for university staff andstudents.
Kind Regards
Samantha Martin
General Manager
NUSport
---
Dear SAMANTHA,
I object to electronically "personalised" broadcasted form emails and letters for unsolicited marketing. While in the short term, such tactics may attract increased attention from potential sales leads, in the long term recipients will learn to ignore them, and will thus be unable to quickly distinguish genuinely personal communication. If you can't take the time to type my name and press the email send button, or can't afford to pay someone to do it for you, please do not address me on a first name basis. It's a form of communicative pollution.
Sincerely,
Doctor "What is the world coming to?" Thomas
---
Dear Thomas
As discussed on the phone this afternoon, thank you for your feedback. Itrust now you are more aware of the constraints NUSport faced in administering this survey given University HR Departmental protocol.
Warm regards
Samantha
Samantha Martin
General Manager
Newcastle University Sport
---
Dear Sam,
Thank you for taking the trouble to both telephone and email to explain the circumstances under which an automatically personalised mass marketing email came to be delivered to my inbox bearing your electronic signature. In hastily compiling my previous email missive in exasperation, I was neither expecting nor hoping for a response, and I hope that you did not find my email overly strongly worded.
While my email was, strictly speaking, addressed to you personally, the contents were - in a certain sense - intended to be "addressed" to the world at large - in particular a modern culture that appears intent on sacrificing any last vestige of individual humanity (like the intimacy implied by being addressed on a first name basis) to the demands of the economic marketplace. It was an expression of frustration in which I felt somewhat like a King Canute objecting to the rising tide. Indeed, you'll notice that I didn't even complain about the use of email for mass marketing, just the social falseness of automated personalisation. (And the email was sent on the understanding that Sam the community member would appreciate that the "complaint" was addressed to Samantha Martin NUSport General Manager, the institutional role).
I understand that the social offense of automated "personalisation" over which I spent ten minutes fussing in an email (while not attending to the less weighty issues of anti-terrorism legislation, industrial relations reform, the restructure of the higher education sector, political interference in academic research, and global environmental sustainability) was in fact (or rather, if I'm to be more careful, allegedly) committed by the University administrative bureaucracy. I will not forward my concerns in that direction, partly because I think that it would most likely be a waste of time, but mostly because I am scared of them.
I apologise for taking your time in this matter, particularly if I have caused Sam the community member any distress.
Sincerely,
Thomas, the niche-audience social critic
We thought you would be interested to learn that, subject to relevant approvals, NUSport will be opening a health and fitness centre inNewcastle's Honeysuckle precinct in 2006. This new city fitness centre,The Forum Harbourside, will offer similar gymnasium, group fitness and private training services and classes to those currently provided on campus at The Forum Sports and Aquatic Centre. In order to fine tunethe mix of products and services to be offered to our members at The Forum Harbourside, we are conducting an online survey of Universitystaff and students.
The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete, and everyperson who completes the survey will go into a draw for a three month Forum PLUS membership valued at $250.
Before we send you the details of how to complete the survey online, we need you to REPLY TO this email to signify your agreement to being part of the survey population. Once the reply is received by the survey administrator you will be sent another email with details of logon id and password.
I hope you will take this opportunity to assist us in providing thevery best health and fitness facilities for university staff andstudents.
Kind Regards
Samantha Martin
General Manager
NUSport
---
Dear SAMANTHA,
I object to electronically "personalised" broadcasted form emails and letters for unsolicited marketing. While in the short term, such tactics may attract increased attention from potential sales leads, in the long term recipients will learn to ignore them, and will thus be unable to quickly distinguish genuinely personal communication. If you can't take the time to type my name and press the email send button, or can't afford to pay someone to do it for you, please do not address me on a first name basis. It's a form of communicative pollution.
Sincerely,
Doctor "What is the world coming to?" Thomas
---
Dear Thomas
As discussed on the phone this afternoon, thank you for your feedback. Itrust now you are more aware of the constraints NUSport faced in administering this survey given University HR Departmental protocol.
Warm regards
Samantha
Samantha Martin
General Manager
Newcastle University Sport
---
Dear Sam,
Thank you for taking the trouble to both telephone and email to explain the circumstances under which an automatically personalised mass marketing email came to be delivered to my inbox bearing your electronic signature. In hastily compiling my previous email missive in exasperation, I was neither expecting nor hoping for a response, and I hope that you did not find my email overly strongly worded.
While my email was, strictly speaking, addressed to you personally, the contents were - in a certain sense - intended to be "addressed" to the world at large - in particular a modern culture that appears intent on sacrificing any last vestige of individual humanity (like the intimacy implied by being addressed on a first name basis) to the demands of the economic marketplace. It was an expression of frustration in which I felt somewhat like a King Canute objecting to the rising tide. Indeed, you'll notice that I didn't even complain about the use of email for mass marketing, just the social falseness of automated personalisation. (And the email was sent on the understanding that Sam the community member would appreciate that the "complaint" was addressed to Samantha Martin NUSport General Manager, the institutional role).
I understand that the social offense of automated "personalisation" over which I spent ten minutes fussing in an email (while not attending to the less weighty issues of anti-terrorism legislation, industrial relations reform, the restructure of the higher education sector, political interference in academic research, and global environmental sustainability) was in fact (or rather, if I'm to be more careful, allegedly) committed by the University administrative bureaucracy. I will not forward my concerns in that direction, partly because I think that it would most likely be a waste of time, but mostly because I am scared of them.
I apologise for taking your time in this matter, particularly if I have caused Sam the community member any distress.
Sincerely,
Thomas, the niche-audience social critic
posted by Patrick Henry at 10:22 PM
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