BlogSat

A couple of weeks ago, I got two emails within minutes of each other. Both had a similar purpose. The senders needed me to do something for them. I should have done both of these things by the time they'd sent these emails and I hadn't because other things had come up and I'd decided these could wait. I get a lot of similar emails and occasionally even send a few of these, but the contrast stood out as I read these back-to-back. These aren't easy emails to send or pleasant ones to receive. In this case, both emails had one very simple goal: get me to do what they wanted as soon as possible. Both emails were sent by folks above my pay grade, and while I would over the next couple of days get to both things, I ended up having very different opinions of the both people after the emails. Thankfully neither used cliches I'm particularly amused by such as "friendly reminder" :), but one email made me respect the person that sent it even more; the other just anno...

A few months ago, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook, COO) declared at a conference. "Email is probably going away." My immediate reaction was: "Umm...ok." I knew what she meant, but still disagreed with the phrasing. A lot of communication that would've been email for me in the past was now posts to my Facebook wall or messages in my FB Messages (which is really just a closed, ok-ish webmail client.) Some of this was for the better (e.g. Wall posts), some of it was definitely for the worse. Here's what happens when someone sends me a FB Message (!!rant warning!!) I end up opening a message in my gmail account. Read it; occasionally hit reply before remembering this won't work.... Grr Go to Facebook and complete the communication.... 3-4 completely unnecessary clicks And if someone forks a message thread, it results in a huge mess that generally makes me want to punch my computer screen.... . Whoomp! The need for a system that reliably delivers text and more t...