Blogging today from the 'Web 2.0 and Beyond' conference in Kensington, first presentation was from Lee Bryant at Headshift. A few points sturck me, firstly about e-mail, we know that e-mail isn't the best tool for much of the communication and knowledge transfer it's currently used for, instant messaging is a much more efficient tool for quick discussions 'are you free for a meeting tomorrow afteroon' etc and wikis are a much better tool for collaborating on docments.
But how do you shift people away from e-mails after potentially many years of it being peoples primary tool? Lee mentioned one person who simple has his e-mail client delete all messages that aren't sent directly to him (thus avioding the CC or FYI culture).. perhaps a little extreme for most people. However without being draconian some guidelines are perhaps necessary, such as if a e-mail is discursive or to more than one person then maybe the place for it is IM or a project blog? However for thse guidelines to have meaning for people they need to be based around examples (or use cases). Once people begin to follow these guidleines, hopefully, they find that they are working significantly more effectivgely and then don't look back!
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