The state of email
Ross Mayfield's got a nice synthesizing
post over at Many2Many that quotes the same stretch by Esther Dyson that Bill cites below. In the process of tracking out the various links that RM includes, I came across a
SocialText discussion from last week about the death of email where Steve Gillmor offers the following diagnosis of how we divide up our online time:
Was: browser 40% time, email 40% time, rest divided up.
Today: most webrowsing is managed by a RSS reader (45-50%). Email is an exercise in futility, responding to ppl who refuse to go via other channels (e.g. IM), about 20%.
I know that academia is a glacier and all, believe me, but I've got to think that claims like this err in the other direction. Now to be fair, I think these are second-hand notes, and so maybe SG's claims weren't quite as extreme as they sound. I have a tough time imagining, though, that "most" browsing is managed through readers, at least once we venture out beyond the tech industry itself. If that were the case, then sites like
Dave Winer's (also an earlier
Bill entry) would be superfluous, yes? Ultimately, I don't think SG is wrong, just that it's gonna be a while before that vision of our online activity is realized...
Now, the death of email? That's not nearly as difficult to imagine...
Posted by at June 10, 2004 12:22 AM
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