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October 4, 2005
Email 2.0
Posted by Ross Mayfield
Tim O’Reilly (I’m not worthy! — huh, that kind of rhymes) picks up on my email signature meme:
This is a first for me, but I expect it will eventually become common. I received an email with the following addition to the signature block:
this email is: [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ] private
Now that’s a social hack that could one day be replaced by a technical hack. Email messages could have “bloggable” as a mime-type for example, and forwarding to a blog client would set up an entry. Lacking that mime-type, you’d have to resort to cut and paste, as now…
I post this here not for sake of memetic vanity, but to make a point. The reason we are building Web 2.0 is because we were not able to build Email 2.0. The first web didn’t support our social needs, so we used email for everything. But we couldn’t really hack it. Most social software has by now adapted to email, but email could never have adapted to it.
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1. Julian Bond on October 5, 2005 1:25 AM writes...
I blame Microsoft! One of the many things they've done that makes me really angry is the way they subsumed Internet Email via Outlook and Outlook Express. Both use a UI metaphor that is still stuck in pre-internet mail and which actively discourages you from using the simple netiquette rules that were in place when they appeared on the net.
Permalink to Comment2. Steven Clift on October 5, 2005 1:45 PM writes...
At E-Democracy.Org we've been using the new open source GroupServer tool to connect e-mail and the web more intelligently. So perhaps we will end up with Web 2.0 concepts and smarter E-mail 1.0.
We host online forums on local issues with many people still using dial-up or too busy to visit web sites. More: http://e-democracy.org/if
(You try to get a city council member to watch RSS feeds ... although our mayor might. :-))
One of the things we've done is automatically insert a link to the Member Profile of a poster to promote accountability. In St. Paul we also automatically insert the name (we require real names), neighborhood and city at the bottom of a message to build trust and a sense of geographic spread.
The problem with most web-centric social software tools is that they don't make E-mail 1.0 work very well. For example in GroupServer, you may equitably reply or start a new topic via e-mail or the web. The behavior change has been to get people to stop changing subject lines (it does work when you point out that changing the subject often leaves your post in no mans land if the main tread continues). The problem with many web-centric systems is that they treat e-mail users as second class citizens.
Anyway, we have more information on our use of GroupServer (even a video tour) at:
http://e-democracy.org/groupserver
We are also, thinking up future features on our wiki:
http://e-democracy.org/wiki/Groupserver_feature_ideas
Cheers,
Steven Clift
P.S. RSS is native in GroupServer and it is _not_ a cludge of a web forum on a mailing list tool.
Permalink to Comment3. ライブチャット on October 6, 2005 4:03 AM writes...
素人ライブチャット、無料ライブチャットが萌えて凄いライブチャット倶楽部で炎のライブチャット、そして素人で萌え。ライブチャット最前線だからライブチャット糾弾風呂具。萌え萌えライブチャットでぷるるんライブチャット。God bless.
Permalink to Comment4. hotel Almuñecar on October 6, 2005 10:47 AM writes...
Mi opinión es la siguiente:
Permalink to CommentExisten dos intereses contrapuestos los de los desarrolladores de software y los de la sociedad, esta última en su concepto mas abstracto reclama, a gritos el acceso a las nuevas tecnologias para todos, pero hablamos de algo que es propiedad de quien lo realiza.
Pienso que deben existir formulas compensatorias para que ambas partes vean sus derechos y reclamaciones satisfechas.
En España uno de cada 10 automovilistas carece de seguro obligatorio, ha dejado de pagarlo o nisiquiera lo contrato nunca, si el importe de dicho seguro (que es alto) estuviera grabado en el combustible, todos tendriamos mucha mas tranquilidad.
En España la Sociedad General de Autores nos graba un impuesto que encarece seriamente la compra de cualquier CD con el pretexto de que sirve para mitigar el impacto (sin duda importante) que la piratería tiene sobre los propietarios de los derechos de autor, pienso que es una violación de los derechos de presunsión de inocencia, de libre mercado...Es una medida inoportuna y desmesurada.
Pero siempre existe un camino intermedio.
5. PeterCashmore on October 6, 2005 3:29 PM writes...
Ross,
This is interesting. So is there an opportunity to make email more 2.0, or should web 2.0 evolve to do the job of email? Maybe blogs are an example of what email just couldn't do...
Permalink to Comment6. reed on October 6, 2005 5:37 PM writes...
I would make it an "X-" header rather than a MIME type, MIME types can't really be extended with attributes like that. You could include a brief identifier for a Creative Commons license in the header, as well.
X-Permission-To-Republish: yes|no|ask
Permalink to CommentX-Copyright-License: CC:by-nd
7. Matt Terenzio on October 10, 2005 10:26 AM writes...
I agree with Peter, let's forget email and just make a blog entry have the privacy ability so only one or more recipients will receive it in their Personal News Reader.
Permalink to Comment8. diego galli on October 11, 2005 1:42 PM writes...
your rss feeds seem not workig any more since mid september. am i the only one to experience problems with it?
Permalink to Comment9. Ross Mayfield on October 11, 2005 4:06 PM writes...
I just added this to the bottom of my email signature:
if bloggable: (CC) licensed Attribution Non-commercial
Permalink to Comment10. rick gregory on October 11, 2005 11:19 PM writes...
Email became ubiquitous because it let people connect and because it's EASY.
You send someone a message, it appears in their Inbox (another easy concept to get...). They reply, that appears in your Inbox. The message is private in the sense that it goes between two people. IM is similarly easy - see who's available on your list of people, send them a message and start chatting.
Any replacement or extension of email is going to have to be similarly easy, have the advantages of email and have some other key advantages that email doesn't have. Otherwise why will the mass of people who use email daily switch?
Permalink to Comment11. missing on July 21, 2006 7:36 AM writes...
I dont really get it. Usually I send an email to someone because I got the address from his vcard and then enter it, enter some text, click on send. go. What would be the way to do it with this email 2.0? And why should I choose to do it like that?
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