We’re heads down on the new release here, but I wanted to take a quick moment to point you to some of the interesting articles I’ve come across the last few days:
WSJ: Will Social Features Make Email Sexy Again?
“Email providers are trying to steal some of social networking’s thunder as fast-growing services like Facebook Inc. begin to encroach on their turf.” (Deva’s got some comments on this one).Alternate Layers: Workplace Attention Economy
“Email Free Friday is a downright silly idea, but is a sign that there is a greater disease.” (It looks like Thomas has the same opinion as me regarding Free Email Day).Bex Huff: Email Free Fridays
I found Ben’s admittedly aggressive solution to email overload from the article above. His suggested automated response to email: “I’m currently swamped with projects X, Y, and Z at the moment. If I answer your email, one of them will suffer. Please let me know which one should suffer, let me inform the project manager that it will suffer because of you, and then I’ll be happy to answer your question.“CNET: Gates has a long to-do list
“Others at the company say that Gates is particularly driven about the notion of how presence–the notion of a computer knowing whether someone is online or not–can be used by computers to help prioritize work.” OK, so this is tangentially related to email, but I found the comments regarding presence and prioritization to be pretty interesting for reasons that I’m sure you can guess.
Enjoy.