Just had a epiphany while reading Tantek Çelik’s Communication Protocols. A lot of people are complaining about the inefficiency of emails. What if we read emails like we read twitter statuses? What if we have e-mails incorporated as direct messages with file attachments as links?
The strength of twitter is the limit to 140 characters. If we force people to use twitter-like email clients (or a client that can provide a twitter interface), it will make people think twice before emailing anything - and email only what is necessary.
I see a great opportunity in this, at least I will use it, if it comes up in the market! :)
Comments
16 weeks 6 days ago, speps wrote:
It's "epiphany" not ephiphany. Great idea anyway.
In the same domain, I also wondered that it would be possible to do send a SMS with a special flag saying not to beep when this message arrives at destination. That would allow to send a message to someone sleeping so that he can read it in the morning.
16 weeks 6 days ago, divya wrote:
Oops typo! Fixed it. Thanks for pointing it out!
I have managed to sleep through my SMSes but I think it is a good idea to have a notification once the recipient wakes up about the SMS received.
16 weeks 5 days ago, Mrinal Wadhwa wrote:
A lot of people are thinking quite seriously about this ... two projects that I know of .. that are intended to reduce email and replace it with twitter like messages within enterprises are ..
The one within SAP run by Craig Cmehil http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=302
and Wordpress Prologue http://wordpress.com/blog/2008/01/28/introducing-prologue/
I'm sure there are others experimenting with this too.
16 weeks 5 days ago, divya wrote:
Thanks for stopping by Mrinal! Thanks for the links. Didnt know companies have already started using the technique. I think it is about time people started using this format. It opens a whole new way of communication!
16 weeks 5 days ago, Mrinal Wadhwa wrote:
Hi Divya,
Its a pleasure, you have a very nice blog.
And, I'm glad you like my new workspace :)
Mrinal
12 weeks 3 days ago, Carl wrote:
I used to use Twitter a lot, but recently slowed down. I find it great for people "out in the field" or "on the go" who have something to report. For example, the democratic presidential candidates use them extensively to let everyone know where they will be next. I find myself twittering more about what things that I overhear more as opposed to what's going on in my own life.
12 weeks 3 days ago, divya wrote:
That does make sense. I rarely use twitter to broadcast my personal life but rather use it to say something useful or smthing that other people can resonate with. It is interesting how each person use twitter so differently!