How this simple, durable, elegant communication tool actually works.
What you see when you open a message in Outlook or Gmail isn't just a snapshot of what someone sent to you. It's a report. It's generated by an invisible query and built of select fields of information culled from a complex dataset, then presented to you in an arrangement determined by your e-mail client's capabilities and user settings.
Dude, your e-mails are a database, and so are mine…and his…and hers. Epic.
And for most corporate e-mail users, their messages and attachments implicate at least two databases: the big one housed on a server and storing e-mail records for many users, and smaller, local counterparts residing on employees' desktop computers, laptops, cell phones, iPads and other email client devices.
E-MAIL DATA AND METADATA
E-mail databases do more than simply store and transmit messages and attachments; they add information, too.
When a user opens a message, his or her e-mail client changes the message's appearance to indicate it's been read. When the user flags a message for follow-up, moves messages to folders or deletes certain items, the e-mail client records these changes as data about data, i.e., metadata.
This metadata, and pieces of information transmitted within the messages, are fields in a database that collectively comprise records users query to display what they see onscreen as e-mail messages.
Users rarely see all of the metadata that an e-mail server or local client stores about messages. Instead, they're given a nicely formatted presentation of just the data and metadata their e-mail client software is configured to display. That is, they see the fields in the default "report" that the message database writes to the screen. But, it's easy to see more — much more.
If you're an Outlook user, find the pane that lists your e-mail, and note the columns in your current view. You're certain to have From, Subject and Received among them. You may also spot columns for flagging messages or displaying their importance or size. Now, right-click on the column title bar and select "Fields." In the "Show Fields" menu that appears, choose "All Mail Fields" from the Available Fields submenu, and you'll have dozens of additional fields from which to choose. Want to display whether a message was read or cc'd? Add those columns. Want to report if a message has been opened or flagged? Add those columns. With each column you add, you're revising the report that Outlook displays about your e-mail.
Some of the data you're seeing was delivered in the e-mail, but the rest of it got tacked on by your server, your mail client or you. Actually, the data's not really "tacked on" to the messages received, because the e-mails received are gone. Instead, all the data about the e-mail is stored in a database and retrieved and displayed when all the various parts of the message and its metadata are assembled onscreen for your viewing pleasure.
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Source: law.com
By: Craig Ball
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