Connect to the latest WFO news, information: Visit the WFO Web site at http://www.wfo.org

The WFO Web site offers the latest information on WFO activities and international meetings, as well as easy access to the e-mail addresses of the WFO Secretariat, WFO Executive Committee members and presidents of affiliated organizations. The Web-site address is http://www.wfo.org.

Since the WFO Web site debuted in November 1998, its popularity has steadily increased. During the Web site’s first quarter of existence - November 20, 1998, to March 20, 1999 - individuals from around the world visited the Web site 2,063 times. (A Web-site visitor may be someone who has accessed the site one or more times.) During the first month the site was online, the public accessed it 279 times. The number of visits increased to 412 for the second month and to 743 for the third month. During the fourth month, the site was accessed 629 times.

Individuals from the United States, Japan, Germany, Australia and Mexico represented the majority of the WFO Web-site visitors. U.S. residents accounted for 59 percent of all visits.

In addition, during this four-month period, the Web site recorded 14,855 hits. Hits are measured by totaling the number of files, e.g., text, images, and forms, downloaded from the Web site to a visitor’s computer. For example, the home page, or the first page, of the WFO Web site contains one image and one text file. This equals two hits every time an individual visits this page.

The latest addition to the WFO Web site is the contact information for the presidents of the affiliated organizations. This information includes office addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Web-site addresses. To access this information, visitors should go to the directory section of the Web site.

Fellows who have not visited the WFO Web site should take the time to do so. As the 2nd Meeting of the WFO approaches, the Web site will have the latest information on this historical meeting.

Make your message clear: Netiquette is important when dealing with e-mail

Electronic mail (e-mail) messages are an easy and quick way to communicate with fellow colleagues and friends, especially if they live in another time zone or country. The rapid computer transmission gives e-mail messages a unique informal tone. However, the loss of nonverbal cues normally present in telephone or face-to-face conversations (facial expression, tone of voice and body language) makes it easy for e-mail to be seriously misunderstood.

Below are a few guidelines that will help ensure that your e-mail messages are understood and appreciated by the recipient.

  • Always identify yourself in an e-mail message so that the recipient knows to whom they are responding.

  • Always enter a descriptive phrase in the subject field of an e-mail message. This phrase should give an indication of the message’s content. Most mail systems display only the sender’s name and subject. If you have more than one topic, send separate messages for each topic. This allows the recipient to reply separately to each topic and more easily "file" the message under the proper category.

  • Consider anything that you send via e-mail to be public. Your message may be forwarded without your knowledge or permission, printed copies may be left lying around, or people may see it on your screen. If you would be embarrassed to see your message posted on a public bulletin board, do not send it.

  • DO NOT USE ALL CAPS! It will look like you are shouting. Likewise, do not write your messages in all lower case. It will look like you are mumbling.

  • Keep your messages short. Be clear and be polite, but get to the point. Do not double-space your messages. Use one blank line to break paragraphs. Most people do not like to read large blocks of text.

  • Keep the format as simple as possible. Special characters, special fonts, boldface, italics, underlining and color settings do not pass well through the Internet because they may be interpreted differently by different computer systems and e-mail applications.

  • It only takes a few keystrokes to send messages to many people. However, you should limit your correspondence to only interested parties who need the information.