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Maybe my wording is a little too antagonistic. “Primitive” is a strong word, but I simply meant it in a relative sense: there are other methods more modern. A

Maybe my wording is a little too antagonistic. “Primitive” is a strong word, but I simply meant it in a relative sense: there are other methods more modern. Also, to brk's point, I am in no way advocating replacing email. Email didn't replace the telephone, handwritten notes or face-to-face speech, it augmented them. But can it really be argued that email is the most modern form of communication? Every innovation up to this point has reached critical mass, and then subsequently been supplanted in less time than the previous. Basic writing took millenia, the printing press took centuries, the telephone took decades. At this point, email is a few decades old and already mainstream. It's due to be overtaken by the latest new thing, of which there are multiple candidates: * Discussion Forums * Instant Messaging * Wikis * News Aggregation Sites * Real-Time Information Streams Again, let me emphasize that I do not think email should be replaced. But to a lot of people, email is the be-all and end-all of modern communications. This is hardly the case. It's more like the beginning, the starting point and the basis. There are plenty of sophisticated tools at hand that can be used to solve specific problems which email is ill-suited to address.

tokenadult 17y ago
There are plenty of sophisticated tools at hand that can be used to solve specific problems which email is ill-suited to address. I'm still politely requesting more specifics here.
- alanthonyc 17y ago
  Example 1 – To have a public debate about the relative merits of email as a form of communication versus other forms, both older and newer: Discussion Forum. Example 2 – Assume a decision was made to design a new system to supplant email. A metaphor for a whiteboard would be ideal to have multiple people involved in the design of that system: A Wiki Example 3 – Assume a mission critical time sensitive deployment of a new system. Involved parties are geographically distant, but need to be kept up to date on a minute-by-minute basis: Yammer (private microblog platform) Each of these can be solved using email, but the tools I've outlined are much better at performing each task. I'm not sure if you're making me jump through these hoops just for the sake of it or if these examples really are not obvious. If someone like yourself, for whom I can only assume these tools are familiar, don't see these benefits, then it's no wonder that the general population don't see their utility either.
- alanthonyc 17y ago
  I believe this pretty much seals it: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-... Email is now officially old technology.

tokenadult 17y ago

There are plenty of sophisticated tools at hand that can be used to solve specific problems which email is ill-suited to address. I'm still politely requesting more specifics here.

alanthonyc 17y ago
Example 1 – To have a public debate about the relative merits of email as a form of communication versus other forms, both older and newer: Discussion Forum. Example 2 – Assume a decision was made to design a new system to supplant email. A metaphor for a whiteboard would be ideal to have multiple people involved in the design of that system: A Wiki Example 3 – Assume a mission critical time sensitive deployment of a new system. Involved parties are geographically distant, but need to be kept up to date on a minute-by-minute basis: Yammer (private microblog platform) Each of these can be solved using email, but the tools I've outlined are much better at performing each task. I'm not sure if you're making me jump through these hoops just for the sake of it or if these examples really are not obvious. If someone like yourself, for whom I can only assume these tools are familiar, don't see these benefits, then it's no wonder that the general population don't see their utility either.
alanthonyc 17y ago
I believe this pretty much seals it: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-... Email is now officially old technology.