I’ve been following Luis Suarez’s mission to live in a world without email with interest pretty much since it started. And while I agree with Luis that email will not die any time soon, I do think Luis’ email journey raises some interesting questions (many of which Luis has noted in blog posts throughout that selfsame journey).

As I was reading the latest post I’ve linked to above, it made me think about why I send email and how I feel about email. I’m sort of ambivalent about the actual act of sending an email — I often get the sense that there are certain things I’d be better off sending through instant messaging, posting somewhere fixed (especially in terms of files) or simply picking up the phone.

I won’t run through an exhaustive list of the disadvantages of email (a quick Google search brings up a ton of results on email’s cons), but its main disadvantages are pretty obvious. Email is impersonal, error-prone (ever forget to cc someone crucial?), fractured, and is often misinterpreted.

So if email is so imperfect, why do we all send so many of them every day? Because most of the time, email is the path of least resistance. Conversations (even instant messaging ones) require commitment from you and the other party, and sadly, using collaborative tools often consists of logins, attachment uploading time and some planning. It’s simply easier to just fire off emails without really thinking about it.

And I think this also sums up at least part of Luis’ point about email. The purpose is not to eliminate email completely from the work world, but just to get people to think more closely and when and why they use email. For example, even the possibility of being misunderstood is a good reason to simply pick up the phone.

And from the collaboration perspective, more collaboration tools that integrate seamlessly into people’s work are needed (yes, I know, a tall order). There are too many collaboration tools that are built with great intentions and end up becoming distant silos, hidden behind login screens, forgotten passwords and connecitivty issues.

From my perspective, this means bridging the concepts of the ’network’ and the ‘desktop’, so that collaborative spaces are no longer a case of ‘oh yeah, I should’ve use the workspace’, but instead just the de facto standard when it comes to sharing and collaborating.

Now back to my email.