Think about what you like about e-mail. It's pretty basic, easy to use regardless of the specific client, platform, operating system, etc. Now think about what you don't like about e-mail. It piles up quickly, is pretty static in terms of the range of content that can be delivered, and it's not rally good for time sensitive information if recipients are not paying attention to their inboxes. So what if you were able to deliver dynamic content via e-mail, which could be synchronized with a corresponding Web page, that also allowed the potential for collaboration among the recipients of that message, as well as a range of other interactive tasks? Well, one way it's currently being done is through the use of something called "zaplets." Zaplets combine the benefits of instant messaging, interactive e-mail, and a host of other basic technologies to develop the notion of dynamic e-mail and Web content into a potential platform for collaborative tasks. You can sign up for a free basic/enhanced for-fee hosted Application Service Provider (ASP) subscription, or pay to host the technology on one of your servers. You start off by choosing what type of zaplet you want to use. There is a sizable range of template and pre-formatted zaplets to choose from under the basic headings of discussions, opinion gathering, administrative, pictures and graphics, invitations, and organizing and planning tables. Under these broad headings, you can set up mini-applications to schedule an event and create an agenda, keep track of activities and generate to-do lists, do online brainstorming, or provide a means for online updates across an organization. You next fill out a form in which you list the recipient email addresses (you can elect to hide all the recipient e-mail addresses to reduce the chance of spamming). You can then elect to send the zaplet in a "secure" mode, which means that only the author of a zaplet can forward it, only individual e-mail addresses can be entered, and that recipients can only view it if they register for the service and logon to the Web. Otherwise your zaplet can be viewed and forwarded by any recipient. The subject is then added, at which point you can also elect to receive notifications any time someone responds to the zaplet. You can then preview and send out your zaplet. An HTML page is then generated, and then sent out to your recipient list. The technology can detect what type of e-mail client each recipient has, and will send either the full page or the URL link to that particular zaplet. Some zaplet types can also allow attached files to be sent to multiple recipients. Although the zaplet is viewed as a graphic-oriented HTML page, you can access the contents in a printer-friendly format. The author can at any time close the zaplet from further contributions (and add a closing statement) through an administrative panel either on the web or in the e-mail version. Authors can also resend the zaplet with a reminder message that something has been modified, or toggle on/off the viewable e-mail address option. Any original or subsequent recipients can be added to a Web-based e-mail address contact folder. The online address book can also important e-mail address from Yahoo, Outlook, Netscape Messenger, Excite (and soon Hotmail) accounts. When the user receives the zaplet, they will literally be able to access in HTML form via e-mail or the web, through which they can send a response or forward the form to others, depending upon the options. The original sender of the message will receive notifications as soon as others respond. Even better, each response is logged in the order in which it arrives, and is time-stamped. Comments can also be sorted by respondent name. OK, here's where it gets interesting. As new responses are added and logged, the actual zaplet itself is updated, without requiring additional messages to be sent out to everyone. This means you only have to send one zaplet messages, which sits in someone's in box, and which can be opened and closed throughout the day to display new content that has been added. And, you can make a zaplet expire after it has been read (neat considering one of founders of Zaplet used to work for the Central Intelligence Agency). Now, before you roll your eyes and say, "geez another one of crazy online services," we should point out that at least one nonprofit organization has made pretty visible use of zaplet technology in the political arena-- the Republican National Committee. Indeed, the RNC, during a good portion of 2000, used zaplets to conduct polls, surveys, research and even limited and fundraising. Consider the most recent election cycle in America. A lot of media attention focused on e-mail and websites used as public relations tools, as well as a means for voter education and volunteer recruitment. Now, while the web let candidates do a lot more canvassing for less money than using direct mail and telephone calls, the Web in particular had one immediate flaw: users had to have the awareness, incentive, and inclination to go to a particular site. A purely Internet-based approach, which relied on e-mail or advertising in traditional media containing URLs to drive traffic to websites, would run the risk of drowning recipients under a volume of communication and steps required to receive desired content. The RNC finally hit upon an idea: what if, instead of asking users to click on a link to visit a website to perform a desired action, we simply put the content of a site directly into the e-mail, such that all information transactions can take place as soon as the user opens up a message. Zaplet technology was just beginning to make the rounds as a beta-test product, and, the RNC was one of the first entities to adopt it for real-world applications. The polling zaplets, in particular, proved to be a big hit. An initial April 2000 zaplet mailing of to 25,000 active RNC members across the U.S. provided the party field coordinators with the means to do effective additional polling on everything from ad campaigns, policy statements, and issues of concern. It also helped to make those results available to others in near real-time without having to send a flood of messages that might be potentially ignored or read out of sequence. As the messages were forwarded to other party members, new e-mail addresses could be captured along with useful demographic information (remember you can require users to register before contents of a zaplet can be accessed). One other high-profile campaign currently using zaplets is The Hunger Site, which incorporates Zaplets into e-mail mailings that allow recipients to donate through their e-mail inbox, and to also track other donations as they flow in, again without having to receive multiple messages. Much like Zaplets, Gizmoz use the old technique of viral marketing-- those self-sustaining streams of implied recommendations from senders with whom you are familiar (we just call it online "word-of-mouth)-- that you have all grown to know and love so well. These tools are designed to deliver multimedia content to almost any type of browser, without requiring a special plug-in, even to those using slower Internet connections. Gizmoz technology is designed to sit in databases, on a central server and can stream dynamic content in real time to any machine on which a Gizmoz itself resides. Each time a recipient views content, a report is generated that outlines who saw it and when; how many recipients there are and if they are forwarding a message; and whether they responded to a desired action (like clicking on the Gizmoz to link to a site). This is different than an interactive banner ad, though, because Gizmoz broadcast content as it's being uploaded, rather than waiting until content has been archived before it is made available to a user's browser requesting access to content. Because they are high-end marketing tools, Gizmoz are not created for free-- they do cost money. It does not cost money to receive or view Gizmoz. Now, as a comparison, you also might want to review a tool known as 2way. The basic idea here is to embed the features (and benefits) of e mail directly into an interactive web page. Using a template-driven system, an author creates an online form, which can collect and tabulate data from any selected set of users. The neat thing here is that 2way features a built-in scripting language that can develop multi-level applications, without a steep learning curve. Another neat feature is that, for multiple-page 2ways, there are built-in navigational buttons that allow certain steps to be skipped or reviewed; and automatic formatting features on those forms requiring input in the form of lists or bulleted items. This particular technology has been around as a server-based tool for corporate environments, but last year, 2way started a service through which they host the underlying database, while allowing subscribers to download a tool to create and distribute their own 2ways. Again, this does not come cheap-- around US$3000 (setup) and US$1500 monthly for a single-user account. Nonprofits should keep in mind, however, that Zaplets, Gizmoz, and 2Way use a tracking technique similar to those used by other online services, which can provide some details on who is seeing your messages and when. The difference with the services cited here, however, is that nonprofits have the option of hosting the service directly on their own servers, and to utilize the tracking technology in a responsible manner for things like polling and audience response. Keep in mind that groups using this approach are encouraged to articulate their deployment to recipients. There are also a number of free Perl, PHP, Java, etc. scripts that can do the same thing. Some of them do use cookies, or IP tracking, to deliver roughly the same capability. Nonprofits should, before signing up for any online service, be vigilant about both privacy and security policies and features for any online service of this type. If hosted, users should ask if the information stored on the company's servers will be aggregated or used for marketing purposes, and if there is an option to "opt-out" or "opt-in" to any marketing efforts. Still, Zaplets, Gizmoz and 2ways should provide nonprofits (and the techies who serve them) with some ideas about how to deliver content that can simultaneously encourage and capture responses from recipients as they are provided. Resources Zaplets Republican National Committee The Hunger Site Gizmoz 2Way