ComputerWorld article: The Future of E-mail
The Future of E-mail explores various research related to email - from Microsoft R&D, IBM and HP, among several others - along with titbits such as how many work in email space in Microsoft R&D (which is, about 40). Here is quick summary of all projects:
Microsoft's efforts in Malware control
- "Combination of New technologies, plus economic and political pressures will solve the problem." Microsoft is primarily pushing Sender ID framework, whose advantage, it claims, is that it will work across the communication technologies (such as IM).
- "SmartScreen" filter uses statistical approach to identify spam. Phishing filter add-in for MSN Search toolbar. Other approaches - such as solving puzzles, micropayments also under consideration.
- "MailScope" which monitors email routes and identifies delays in email delivery.
- "SureMail" - approach to ensure emails are indeed received. A parallel architecture to email to post notifications (of having sent email) into a centralized table and ensuring that clients poll that table to know about pending emails.
Email as part of activity threads in workplace
- IBM's Activity Explorer is a collaboration tool that pulls together e-mail messages, synchronous communication such as instant messages, screen images, files, folders and to-do lists. A different UI has emails under explicitly defined activities of a business process.
- Microsoft Research has developed a way to combine e-mail, files, Web pages, calendar entries, to-do lists and other materials into one searchable archive. Called "Stuff I've Seen".
Mining corporate message archives
- HP's message mining to identify patterns of collaboration among people: Leadership roles, people who act as hubs and so on. For e.g. "Who are top 5 experts in topic XYZ?"
- Also a similar (but more subtler approaches) from Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, who focuses on social networks; understanding precisely who or what factors are responsible for key influences on community.
Email has been my personal focus for last several years, and I can't agree more to a general impression that email is yet to come out of its teanage stage. Blogs serve a different communication paradigm, and while it will co-exist (and integrate - from workflow point of view), it won't replace email. But wikis are very different beasts; if done well, they have capability to create a dent in email. It all depends on how universal they will become; like how sendmail became universal some years ago.
We have some projects within my organization, and quite interesting too - it has elements of all three aspects discussed above. You would have to contact me through official channels, if you are interested.
Microsoft's efforts in Malware control
- "Combination of New technologies, plus economic and political pressures will solve the problem." Microsoft is primarily pushing Sender ID framework, whose advantage, it claims, is that it will work across the communication technologies (such as IM).
- "SmartScreen" filter uses statistical approach to identify spam. Phishing filter add-in for MSN Search toolbar. Other approaches - such as solving puzzles, micropayments also under consideration.
- "MailScope" which monitors email routes and identifies delays in email delivery.
- "SureMail" - approach to ensure emails are indeed received. A parallel architecture to email to post notifications (of having sent email) into a centralized table and ensuring that clients poll that table to know about pending emails.
Email as part of activity threads in workplace
- IBM's Activity Explorer is a collaboration tool that pulls together e-mail messages, synchronous communication such as instant messages, screen images, files, folders and to-do lists. A different UI has emails under explicitly defined activities of a business process.
- Microsoft Research has developed a way to combine e-mail, files, Web pages, calendar entries, to-do lists and other materials into one searchable archive. Called "Stuff I've Seen".
Mining corporate message archives
- HP's message mining to identify patterns of collaboration among people: Leadership roles, people who act as hubs and so on. For e.g. "Who are top 5 experts in topic XYZ?"
- Also a similar (but more subtler approaches) from Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, who focuses on social networks; understanding precisely who or what factors are responsible for key influences on community.
Email has been my personal focus for last several years, and I can't agree more to a general impression that email is yet to come out of its teanage stage. Blogs serve a different communication paradigm, and while it will co-exist (and integrate - from workflow point of view), it won't replace email. But wikis are very different beasts; if done well, they have capability to create a dent in email. It all depends on how universal they will become; like how sendmail became universal some years ago.
We have some projects within my organization, and quite interesting too - it has elements of all three aspects discussed above. You would have to contact me through official channels, if you are interested.
posted by Vinod Kulkarni at
11:03 PM
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