The Email Guessing Game

An obstacle I encounter regularly in this job is locating contact information for specific individuals in the federal government. Unless I've met someone directly or been given their e-mail and phone number by a colleague, it takes a good amount of time to track them down. I regularly have to ask, "Do you know the e-mail standard at [agency name]?"

Because each agency seems to use a different convention, I'm always wondering: Is it firstname.lastname@agency.gov? Is the agency abbreviated -- like "@dhs.gov" -- or written out in full (@state.gov)? Initials, periods, underscores, the list goes on.

Linda Cureton, NASA's chief information officer, blogs about how and why she established the e-mail standard at the Justice Department:

My biggest mistake was establishing the e-mail convention while at Department of Justice. It was firstname.middleinitial.lastname@usdoj.gov. I liked that because it was easy to manage the directory and avoid name collisions. Well that made it very difficult for someone to guess an e-mail address unless you know the receiver's middle initial. So, it was easy for me to administer, but difficult for people to use. It still exists today -- what I established in the late 90s.

So why not have one standard for all federal agencies so no one has to guess? I suppose it's a good way of keeping contact information private, but it sure makes it hard for colleagues and others to stay in touch.