FF, FC, conns, et al:
We do not disagree on what
is but only on what is to come. I'm sensing a general end-of-history vibe when I read some of the more vociferous posts on here in support/in defense of email, as if email is the pinnacle of workplace digital communication and nothing will ever supplant it. That process is already underway at least in terms of internal communication, like Zippy, DB, and even FF have admitted. FC and others correctly point out the obstacle in using anything but email to communicate externally. But with things like DocuSign, Blue Moon, and other cloud-based stuff we're seeing technologies designed to facilitate comms, document transfers, etc., between different entities outside of the traditional email structure. That's only going to increase as more and more people who don't use email spark innovation in the tech space, just like millennials sparked innovation that has already led to the diminished use of email for social comms. Of course email is still the most predominant form of business comms - I am not disputing that. What I am saying is that 1) there already are technologies deployed to replace email as the main form of communication (we've already covered this) and 2) obviously generation Z will shape the future of both social and business comms and in that future the role of email will be diminished. It's already happening anyway. Email is not the end of workplace digital communications history.
Frank, I totally sympathize with you on the low-tech entities for whom even email - old as it is - is itself some kind of revolutionary upgrade. I deal with federal agencies from time to time whose tech is annoyingly archaic, so I know what you mean. Even worse, I deal with super low-tech vendors in the developing world, many of whom still use paper as the primary mode of business. I feel the pain. I will fully admit that to get them on email is a win. At the same time, at least domestically, underfunded and non-tech savvy as they are, these municipalities, local agencies, etc., are going to have to adapt. As we covered already, more and more connected citizens do not use email as a primary mode of communication. Whether you're a federal agency or a multinational conglomerate, you're going to have to develop ways to reach your target audience and/or be able to be reached by constituents. I'm not saying we will see this - I'm saying we've already seen this happen before our eyes during the past 20-25 years. We've seen government bodies adapt and change according to the communication trends of the time. They've built websites, communicate via email, and even communicate via Twitter and FB. All of this was previously unthinkable. If we take a step back and just compare how government bodies and businesses interacted with consumers in the 1980s - 1990s to how they interact now, then I'm not sure why we're saying they will stop evolving when it comes to email. They've already mutated and adapted to the times and moving away from or diminishing email, as revolutionary as it once was, will not be some stumbling block they can never get around.
Generationally, this conversation always happens. For millennials, there was great skepticism from the old guard about the viability of things like social media, e-commerce, and other non-traditional consumer and business practices. The millennials necessarily won out. Now, as new generations enter the scene, we're going to have the same conversation and the same thing is going to happen - the new kids on the block are going to win out. You adapt or become "that guy" complaining about how "in my day" we did things blah blah blah. Nobody cares. This is how it goes.
There's nothing permanent in this digital landscape. Things come into existence, evolve, and die at blazingly light speeds. Nothing is sacred. FB dominated the world ten years ago and now it's on its deathbed. Email has enjoyed some longevity but again consumer trends don't lie.
For the question about how can universities or whomever possibly communicate with students without an email address, come on, seriously? You are my guys, but come on here - this happens all the time all day every day. People say IoT is the next big wave and it probably is but currently the thing is mobile penetration. There are tons of startups out there that partner with businesses and educational institutions to build apps that streamline interaction for consumers, students, etc. There are already scholarship apps out there that consolidate applications and allow you to track the status of different things you've filed to different schools and/or foundations, all via a mobile app. In a world where you can order things from Amazon without using a computer or phone, where you can fly a drone using your phone, it's not hard to conceive of apps that allow you to manage and track the status of university applications. This stuff may even be out there and it's not difficult at all.
I'll end with some excerpts from an evenhanded article about email. The article is three years old, but in digital years it's about ten years old. That's how fast shit is moving.
Quote:
Since 1999, Internet use has increased more than tenfold—with the global online population going from about 280 million people to more than 3 billion people, according to Internet Live Stats. Email volume appears to be growing, still, but its share of overall electronic communication has shrunk.If there’s any clue from the behavior of teenagers as to the direction of a given technology, email appears, well, doomed. Teens barely use it (or Facebook for that matter), opting instead for text messaging and chatting on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. Three-quarters of teens regularly text one another, according to a 2012 Pew study, while just 6 percent of them exchange emails routinely.
With more communications platforms to choose from, people aren’t using email as they once did. Today, there are too many real-time communications platforms to track. Along with email, people can chat through tweets, Gchat, Yik Yak, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Skype, HipChat, FireChat, Cryptocat, and—perhaps most popular of all—text messaging.Slack, a real-time messaging platform built for the mobile era, may be the best known example of what business communications might look like in a post-email world, but many companies bill themselves as inbox destroyers. (It’s not an overstatement to say Slack can vastly reconfigure a person’s relationship with email: The Atlantic has used Slack since 2014, and, for me, it’s been transformative.) In the pre-Slack era, I worked in newsrooms that used Skype and Yammer. Asana is a project-management tool that promises “teamwork without email.” For email-free task collaboration, there’s also Trello and Basecamp, among others.In Silicon Valley, the question of what comes after email is already dated. In the newsroom where my colleagues and I used Skype, more than five years ago, one colleague, a website developer, refused to use email on principle. Lately, I’ve seen promoted tweets from a company, Ryver, promoting itself as the the product that will replace Slack. In 2011, Robert Half Technology polled 1,400 executives and found that more than half of them believed real-time communications platforms would surpass email by this year. Some people argue that’s already happened.
The idea behind Slack is that, when you’re addressing the same core group of people via email all the time anyway, you might as well have a shared digital space so that people can dip in and out of the conversation as needed. (Just think: No more sifting through email threads in which six people reply-all to say “thanks.”) Slack isn’t about spending less time communicating, Butterfield says, it’s about accomplishing more in that time.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... il/422625/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-genera ... 1460347264
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
