21 August 2005

Email needs a redesign

Email today is being used in ways for which it was never intended. People use it for task management, workflow management and knowledge management, when it was intended simply as a messaging tool.

It is hard to manage people and tasks with email. Email just wasn’t designed for it – yet the technology is perfect for it.

It’s time for a new kind of email (or a plug-in) that allows the user to keep track of workflows, projects and tasks, and confirm that they have been completed. Such a system could also allow a user to categorize the people he/she communicates with according to their levels of productivity, enabling the user and anyone he/she communicates with to increase both individual and group productivity, and to ignore or isolate those who don’t make productive use of their communication.

This is an open offer to anyone out there with money or software development skills who wants to finance or build such a tool: I will help you design it. I am prepared to give generously of my time because:
  1. I am sick of business communication that does not generate results

  2. I am certain there is a better way

Keep in touch! Sign up to get updates and occasional emails from me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dave,

You might enjoy (if you don't already) reading Clay Shirky eassays on using sftware for communication. He 's my read of teh week.