How does a communications bridge get built?
E-communications turns out to be a cost-effective, efficient, and practical way for organizations to bridge the communications gap. Two specific e-communications "channels" that every Web site and portal should incorporate are email and RSS.

It's important to clarify that in the context of email, we mean permission-based email communications that users subscribe to receive, and that they can unsubscribe from at anytime. Email content can be delivered as plain text and rich text HTML.

RSS, often referred to as "Really Simple Syndication", or "Rich Site Summary", is a powerful way to share information via the Internet. RSS doesn't use email as a delivery mechanism. RSS is a protocol defined in XML (Extensible Markup Language) that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. It's permission-based, and is often referred to as a "pull" technology since recipients must use an RSS reader or RSS aggregator to fetch RSS news feeds. [And, yet, in a sense it's also a "push" technology because information providers are pushing out the information in the form of feeds. --Ed.]

A working example
A working example of how e-communications can be leveraged to improve the usage of a Web site or portal can be found in the US Federal Court system. Comprised of more than two hundred courts, the Judiciary is interesting because it publishes a high volume of dynamic content, but that content predominantly falls into a few defined categories.

For example, most US District and Bankruptcy Courts publish information in the following categories:

• Proposed local rule changes
• General/administrative orders
• Opinions
• News & announcements
• Employment opportunities.

Characteristics of a model e-communications system
There are several US Courts that are bridging the communications gap effectively by employing e-communications systems. These systems enable courts to proactively alert constituents (attorneys, legal firms, community members, etc.) when new information has been published, and solicit feedback when necessary.

The characteristics of a model e-communications system are an online mechanism for Web site visitors to subscribe to receive email notifications, the ability to generate multiple RSS feeds for different content categories, a simple publishing mechanism to generate email and RSS notifications, reporting and tracking capabilities to measure response, the ability to be easily and securely managed by employees, and it must be highly automated (e.g., online subscription management) so workload is minimal.

A court using this type of e-communications system no longer has to depend on citizens to remember to visit its Web site or portal. Instead, the court can focus on encouraging as many constituents as possible to subscribe to one or more of the available channels--RSS feed, or email notification. When new content is released or new services announced, the court simply updates the RSS feeds and delivers email notifications to subscribers. These notifications show constituents exactly where to go on the Web site or portal to find the information they've requested.