Chasing email phantoms

Most of you know by now that I have begun working at VAR Business as their Technology Editor, and it is nice to be back inside a magazine and working with the great people there. But I did you know that I also am still with Infoworld? It came as a surprise to me too. And the funny thing is, no one at Infoworld knows either.

No, I am not talking about actual gainful employment: the last time I did any freelancing for Infoworld was about four years ago, when I wrote various reviews for them on eCommerce server software. But I am still on the magazine’s email list (or at least, I was earlier this week): Just send me mail at david_strom@infoworld.com and it will get delivered to me without any problem within a few minutes.

I mention this not to embarrass the folks at Infoworld, or even to embarrass their IT department, but to prove a point: how many organizations really weed out their internal email address lists when they cut staffers? Probably not many of you. It is a nasty job, especially if your HR department doesn’t directly maintain the corporate email directory.

You can read the entire essay here.