I've spent the last couple of years trying to figure out how to handle 1.4 million users of our community, understand them, their needs and them in order to best be able to ensure that they get the best experience in our community. This of course is not an easy task dealing with a global community so I began to seek out and explore the various tools possible and available to us to do this. One of my favorite sites is the Office 2.0 Application Database which is a treasure trove of great online web based tools designed to help me achieve what I need to achieve, now I often choose for the online tools because these often provide easy ways for the community to use in terms of access. It's nothing like asking someone to find a time to meet when they have no access to your calendar, you simply sit there emailing back and forth until you find a time and often have just wasted a lot of time... Therefore tools like Time To Meet are ideal for me with dealing with all of these folks who are not on the same side of my firewall.

1. Communicate less by using more tools Response over Reaction

2. Starship Enterprisey Friday Morning Report SAP Developer Network Business Process Expert Community Flex BSP PHP @eventtrack blogging video reading family SAP Craig's Rantings... Enterprise Irregulars Enterprise Geeks Demo Jam RIA Hacker Night Widgets Second Life

6. Tip #10 Use proper grammar, "Plz", "Pls", "u", "ur", "thx" - these are not proper so if you want help then ask properly otherwise bugger off!

7. Tip #9 CC's and BCC's, do you really need so many people to know about your email? Keep it short, people who see a long list of CC's and TO's will often push the mail back as being a simple "fyi" see tip #3

8. Tip #8 Want something, be brief and ask directly if they need more background before making a decision they'll ask!

9. Tip #7 "Inbox Zero" is a great idea and something everyone can do - "if they want" many like the idea of massive mails in their inbox it's an easy excuse to use, others like to think people depend on them - you know what though if you don't respond because you can't find it, they'll find another way to do it and then you're out!

10. Tip #6 Someone wants a meeting, remind them to just schedule one and consider that to be the "asking", externals then take a look at services like http://timetomeet.info

11. Tip #5 Work in a virtual team? Memorize time zones and don't be rude and call people late at night if it's early morning for you!

12. Tip #4 Get your mail on a Blackberry or other device? Set your filters and be aggressive, everything else can wait! Auto power the thing off as well!

13. Tip #3 Want to be sure someone knows you are doing something? Email a ton of people all on CC with a simple "fyi" - DON'T! Use a wiki page or a blog (internal works as well)

14. Tip #2 Find a cool website want to tell others? Send an email to 100 people or even just 2 you just wasted their time, regardless of how cool the site is - use a bookmarking tool to share!

15. Tip #1 Write an email, get a response, respond again - if this happens inside of a few minutes, move it to IM!

16. What I can leave you with... Communication is an essential aspect of life, do it properly and reap the benefits. Bog it down and do it poorly and you'll be left wondering why everyone is in Las Vegas and you are in Boston...