Email: Threat or Menace?

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A specter is haunting the enterprise - the specter of email. Where is the knowledge worker who has not felt the oppressive weight of email overload? Where is the business leader who has not complained bitterly of the wastefulness and productivity drain?

Two things result from this situation:

I. Email is depicted as a disease that must be eradicated, or a foe to be defeated.

II. Vendors and consultants offer fever reducers, defensive tactics, and visions of a utopian future free of email.

Last week the English language news sites were atwitter (in both senses) with the announcement by Atos CEO Thierry Breton that the French technology company intends to ban internal email usage among its 74,000 employees within 18 months. Perhaps thanks to my last blog post on email, The Independent called for an interview on "the death of email." The BBC did a radio debate, but obstinately refused to change their programming to accommodate my schedule.

(I say English language because Breton's announcement was duly covered in French and German when he first made it last February. So much for a flat world and instant global communications.)

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