[UA-discuss] Maybe email addresses and URLs might not matter anymore?

Wed Jul 29 18:12:39 UTC 2020

Marc,
I get your point, but have a comment and a question.
I assume that the email address used for the subscription will still be used for other things like FB password recovery and more, so it is probably not a “use once and throw away”, and therefore not just an irrelevant detail.
The question is whether that service that you mention is UA-ready, i.e. whether somebody who has an internationalised email address will be able to register for the services.
Cheers,
Roberto

On 29.07.2020, at 04:28, Marc Blanchet <marc.blanchet at viagenie.ca<mailto:marc.blanchet at viagenie.ca>> wrote:

On 28 Jul 2020, at 19:52, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:

UA Colleagues:

We spend a lot of time thinking about universal acceptance of email addresses and URLs. We tend to assume that email addresses and URLs are important. But for a lot of information technology users, they aren't. Those users learned to use IT via mobile, rather than via desktop computers. They use all-embracing messaging apps like WeChat, or walled garden social media sites where you find what you want by search. In these environments, email addresses and URLs just don't matter as much as they do in longer-established, and Anglo-centric, IT cultures.

« I know ». Email address for my grown-up teen-agers has been a temporary ID to subscribe to a service on the Internet. They verify your email by sending a challenge to your email address. You click. done. no use of email after. Then went Oauth enabling login using your google/facebook/… credentials where the browser even help you to type your userid. Therefore, for my kids, email does not really exist. About URL, URLs were not designed to be readable by users, but just a link to click on.

Marc.

Here are an interesting blog post and an interesting news article on the topic:

/In China, email addresses are irrelevant/ • July 28, 2020 by John Yunker, blog post
<https://globalbydesign.com/2020/07/28/in-china-email-addresses-are-irrelevant/>

/Why email loses out to popular apps in Chin//a/ • 9th July 2020 by Lu-Hai Liang, BBC
<https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200707-why-email-loses-out-to-popular-apps-in-china>

I think a useful response to this might be to keep asking ourselves, how do people communicate in preference to emails? How do people find things in preference to typing in URLs?  Then investigating those methods for Universal Acceptance as well.

'In Anglo-centric countries such as the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, email retains the etiquette of an analogue age. The “Dear X” greetings and formal sign-offs – “Best regards” – and so on, reveal vestigial ties to letter writing.'

As I do in this email message. Best regards,
     —Jim DeLaHunt, software engineer, Vancouver, Canada

--
.   --Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh at jdlh.com<mailto:jdlh at jdlh.com>     http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
     multilingual websites consultant

     355-1027 Davie St, Vancouver BC V6E 4L2, Canada
        Canada mobile +1-604-376-8953

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