A software to track how far emails have 'travelled' PTI | Feb 18, 2014, 07.02PM IST

A new system that uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to calculate the number of miles an email has 'travelled' before reaching an inbox has been developed. 

The system known as Email Miles, uses GPS and internet tracking to determine where a message was sent and where it was received. 

It then calculates the total distance between the two and displays it on the screen alongside a map. 

Inventor Jonah Brucker-Cohen, a design lecturer, said he hoped that it would remind people how quickly they can communicate in a digital world, The Times reported. 

The system also shows how indirect the route of many emails can be. 

An email sent from New York to Dakar, in Senegal demonstrates how the system works. It first travelled 790 miles (1,271 km) to a server in Chicago, Illinois, and then went 2,163 miles (3,481 km) to Mountain View, California; 1,699 miles (2,734 km) to Dallas, Texas; 4,745 miles (7,636 km) to London; and finally 2,718 miles (4,374 km) to its destination -- some 12,115 miles (19,497 km) in all. 

Brucker-Cohen said the system does all of its time and distance calculations using the internet and a coordinate mapping system. 

"When all of the mileage amounts are tallied, it adds them all and provides the user with a map, the countries, continents and miles the email travelled," Brucker-Cohen said.

How to be an effective project manager

By Srilagna Saha, TimesJobs.com Bureau

A number of young employees can graduate to the level of a project manager, but are all of them effective in their way of working? 

Eight out of ten project managers seem to not have the adequate skills to oversee a project or to take up challenging responsibilities. So, what makes a project manager effective? Is it his/her ability to manage people only or is it the combination of being a good task master and yet a patient mentor or is it the ability to look after scaling business? 

Can we actually say that 'A' is a better project manager than 'B'? 

According to experts, a project management team has certain people with the innate ability to do things better than others. Some people are able to apply their skills in whichever combination necessary - the combination doesn't matter, what matters is to move the project forward; while others simply cannot do this even if they have similar or superior set of skills. 

A lot of organisations pay attention towards project management certifications while recruiting. But can a certification really make a project manager effective? Not always. Sonia Agarwal, head PMO, STMicroelectronics, stated, "Certification is not everything. In my own experience I have seen many certified project managers, who are good for nothing and I have seen many who do not have required certifications, but know what they are responsible for and are efficient time managers." 

Certification or no certification, one needs to have the ability to sail through any given situation and have the courage to take charge or control of things. It's not just about finding the usual solutions, but to explore new possibilities or do things that no one has done before. One needs to challenge himself on a regular basis. "Certification is a way to show others what you are actually capable of - but this is not the only criteria to showcase how effective a project manager you can be," adds Agarwal. 

To be an effective project manager one needs to: 

· Be an effective time manager · Be organised · Have the ability to drive a team · Have the ability to push team members and encourage to explore new ideas · Prioritise · Be great at communicating with team members · Have multi-tasking ability · Be self-motivated