<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>UA Colleagues:</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Here are an interesting blog post and an interesting news article
on the topic:<br>
</p>
<p><i>In China, email addresses are irrelevant</i> • July 28, 2020
by John Yunker, blog post<br>
<<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://globalbydesign.com/2020/07/28/in-china-email-addresses-are-irrelevant/">https://globalbydesign.com/2020/07/28/in-china-email-addresses-are-irrelevant/</a>></p>
<p><i>Why email loses out to popular apps in Chin</i><i>a</i> • 9th
July 2020 by Lu-Hai Liang, BBC <br>
<<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200707-why-email-loses-out-to-popular-apps-in-china">https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200707-why-email-loses-out-to-popular-apps-in-china</a>>
<br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>'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.'<br>
</p>
<p>As I do in this email message. Best regards,<br>
—Jim DeLaHunt, software engineer, Vancouver, Canada<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
. --Jim DeLaHunt, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jdlh@jdlh.com">jdlh@jdlh.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.jdlh.com/">http://blog.jdlh.com/</a> (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://jdlh.com/">http://jdlh.com/</a>)
multilingual websites consultant
355-1027 Davie St, Vancouver BC V6E 4L2, Canada
Canada mobile +1-604-376-8953</pre>
</body>
</html>