Death of email?

[broc]

Is email dying?

 

The death of email | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

 

Should I worry about providing email for students in the future or just provide it for staff?

[AngryTechnician]

Email won't die, but it's use will change. The biggest change is already happening, as it shifts from a messaging system to a notification system - i.e. only used by automated systems. Until there is a single open system to replace it as a notification medium, it will remain.

[edutech4schools]

Don't get it. you can get spam SMS and instant messages, and email is a good way to keep everything organised and backed up.

[mavhc]

Email died the day Microsoft invented top posting. All hail google wave.

[PiqueABoo]

I think school kids aren't that interested in using school e-mail. The larger issue (discussed seriously in several places now) is the short messages and increasingly short attention spans re. pretty much any issue you care to mention. Ideas *that matter* tend to take quite a bit of text to explain/debate and very few can be done & dusted within 24 hours.

 

You see this so often nowadays: Something[tm] emerges.. twitter burns with howls of shallow outrage.. tomorrow the issue is the still there, but the protestors are not.

[Arthur]

It's different for Atos CEO, Thierry Breton. He has his own personal secretary to handle his e-mail and other messages! As the following article states, ditching e-mail doesn't remove the interruptions.

 

Switching from one kind of interruption to another doesn't solve the problem—and indeed, a conscientious, well thought-out e-mail that included a number of points or questions might be less of a distraction that a regular barrage of instant messages.

 

Of course, for Breton the decision to abandon internal e-mail was easier than it is for most: Breton has a secretary. (Source)

[webman]

You have 138 unread messages – and you’ve been away from your desk for only two hours.

 

Then you've signed up for too much rubbish or your filters aren't effective enough. I'm lucky if I receive 10 messages a day between personal and work. Even less that need actioning.

[CyberNerd]

Just in the last six months our email usage has tailed off.

 

[SYNACK]

Yeap, email is totally dead, just like postal mail and faxes don't exist anymore... oh, wait.

 

It will be sticking around for a while if just from user and business process inertia.

[Arthur]

Is email dying?

For the answer, see Betteridge's Law of Headlines.

[localzuk]

Email replaced memos in business. Memos are a necessary aspect of any business as it allows different people to pass information between each other to be actioned. Spewing instant messages or text messages at someone is not the same - they are not as persistent.

 

Not to mention, the idea that email disrupts peoples working day is nonsense. If people are allowing email to be disruptive, then they need to change the way they work. If I'm busy doing something, I ignore the phone and ignore my email. The only thing that will interrupt me is either an urgent helpdesk ticket or someone at the door in a panic. Everything else can wait.

 

Saying that email is dead is like saying that phone calls are dying out, or that trains will be the death of cars. Its nonsensical drivel peddled by people more interested in selling stories than actually looking at how people work.

[CyberNerd]

Email replaced memos in business. Memos are a necessary aspect of any business as it allows different people to pass information between each other to be actioned. Spewing instant messages or text messages at someone is not the same - they are not as persistent.

 

The situation you describe is exactly the same attitude people had to email replacing memos ! ie "Spewing email messages at someone is not the same - they are not as persistent [as a memo]."

I'm quite happy with people sending me notes via chat or SMS, I have a record and its fine. I don't think it will kill email for a long while. But I understand why kids don't think in the same way that we do as well.

[broc]

I think the article itself is interesting although I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion; it's a bit like the so called paperless office we were supposed to be moving towards.

 

It did start me wondering; I need to provision a new email service & confess I had been blinkered in thinking I needed to look at providing a service for all staff & every student. Staff email is a given at present, we need it and I don't see it being replaced or superceded anytime soon. I wonder if there is any value in providing am email account for every student though; I know that the current ICT curriculum teaches students about email, but I am wondering if it will be relevant in the future? I have asked the ICT teaching staff for their views.

 

I may end up providing a robust industrial strength email service for staff but look at something more lightweight for students who need it to support the curriculum rather than give all students access automatically.

[localzuk]

I think the article itself is interesting although I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion; it's a bit like the so called paperless office we were supposed to be moving towards.

 

It did start me wondering; I need to provision a new email service & confess I had been blinkered in thinking I needed to look at providing a service for all staff & every student. Staff email is a given at present, we need it and I don't see it being replaced or superceded anytime soon. I wonder if there is any value in providing am email account for every student though; I know that the current ICT curriculum teaches students about email, but I am wondering if it will be relevant in the future? I have asked the ICT teaching staff for their views.

 

I may end up providing a robust industrial strength email service for staff but look at something more lightweight for students who need it to support the curriculum rather than give all students access automatically.

 

Why not just use Google Apps for the lot - its free?

[Edu-IT]

I'm quite happy with people sending me notes via chat or SMS, I have a record and its fine. I don't think it will kill email for a long while. But I understand why kids don't think in the same way that we do as well.

But SMS messages don't really carry a trail like emails do. At least, not one that you can easily access. If I said to you fetch me an email from 12th May you could probably find it a lot quicker than you could an SMS.

[CyberNerd]

But SMS messages don't really carry a trail like emails do. At least, not one that you can easily access. If I said to you fetch me an email from 12th May you could probably find it a lot quicker than you could an SMS.

 

probably. I guess you could have said it would have been easier to find a properly filed memo in 1989 than to find an email. There's a few yrs left in email yet.

 

Why not just use Google Apps for the lot - its free?

 

I'd second that. I've managed both Unix and Exchange mail servers in the past and Google apps is very straightforward. Plus you get chat

[tomgrindle]

Why not just use Google Apps for the lot - its free?

 

I third this and couldn't agree more. We use this at school, I have also implemented it in our family company and I use it for my own domain/email address. Can't go wrong. So easy to use and manage. Only difference it that the company one we pay for, but definitely worth the money and cheaper than hosting an exchange server etc.

[broc]

I am entirely happy with all of the suggestions to consider Google Apps.... when starting the thread I was trying to be non-specific about the solution & choice of platform; my intention was to challenge the accepted norm that we provide email for all

 

Google Apps & Microsoft Office 365 for Education are on my list; my starting point was a new server running Exchange sized for 1000 users. I am picking away at this in terms of cost but also in terms of use too, obviously if I go down the Google Apps route the local costs are minimal. Even so, if I provision a service for all of my users, I estimate 85-95% would be inactive most of the time & therefore potentially a waste or resource, regardless of where I host it.