Answer to Sarah Johnston’s questions:

Sarah's Questions:

Do you know of any companies that require a learning session of netiquette in order to use the internet well in their business? If not, do you think companies should of should not provide this sort of class to it’s employees? What do you think is the most important rule of netiquette that everyone should heed when using the internet?

I could not find any companies who actually require a learning session in netiquette. However, I think companies should provide netiquette classes for their employees. Netiquette classes would give employees a standard way to behave, which would be a reflection of the business they work for. Companies that provide netiquette classes to their employees are also showing their employees the importance of good netiquette. The Lett Group provides netiquette training courses to businesses and individuals with an emphasis in a variety of different topics related to netiquette. The Lett group makes this very easy and even has classes online. Businesses would have no problems setting up their employees with netiquette lessons. By providing netiquette lessons, companies can save themselves heartache as one company realized in a court in Canada.
The most important rule of netiquette everyone should heed when using the internet is “remembering the human (Shea, 2006).” I think all the rules are important, however, I chose “remembering the human (Shea, 2006)” because if people are thinking about the other person behind the computer screen I would hope the other rules would follow. This could be wishful thinking but, if there is at least some respect for the person on the other side of the words, than hopefully the rules of netiquette would not be broken too bad.

Kaplan, Carl, S. (1999). An Argument for 'Netiquette' Holds Up in Court. Cyber Law Journal. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved November 24, 2006. From http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/cyberlaw/16law.html

Netiquette Training Resources. Homepage
http://www.training-classes.com/course_hierarchy/keyword_index/netiquette.html

Shea, Virginia. Albion Homepage. Retrieved from: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html on November 17, 2006.