Drowning in e-mails – from a helper to a burden and how to get back to an efficient use of e-mail

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 2,0, European Business School - International University Schloß Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel (Department for Logistics and Business Engineering), language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction The significance of email as a modern medium for communication has grown fast and sustainable. The technical basis, especially the availability of a digital infrastructure enabled the global spread of email as a user friendly, flexible and versatile medium. By now email can be considered as one of the most frequently used applications of the internet. The advantages of email as being low in costs but high in speed and reliability led to its increasing use and significance. Furthermore its quality of being “viral” through easy forwarding and multi-receiver-sending has opened new possibilities for communication. On the one hand the disposability of email has led to these new trends, on the other hand the very same quality can be held responsible for the short-lived and unsustainable attributes of email.1 Since the emergence of the first communication through electronic mail the face of email concerning both quality and quantity has changed significantly. In terms of quality it has changed from a simple substitute for the hand written letter to today’s most important tool for collaboration, knowledge-management, online marketing and global business communication. Furthermore it is “now used for multiple purposes: document delivery and archiving, work task delegation; and task tracking. It is also used for storing personal names and addresses, for sending reminders, asking for assistance, scheduling appointments, and for handling technical queries.” Electronic mail can be considered as vital precursor for globalization and the modern information society. Its commercial use for offers, contracts, orders etc. created demand for an obliging and explicit legal framework together with new standards regarding electronic signature, identification and data safety. The trend of an increasing quantity of electronic mail is strongly related to its development, standardization and availability of digital infrastructure. The exponentially increasing amount of email per day has led to serious problems regarding efficiency in the use of the medium and to new challenges both for the technical infrastructure, the software and the user.