What do you use to communicate if not email?
I use it constantly, as I have for years: one mailbox for work, one for personal stuff. My whole life flows through email, it sometimes seems. How else would it work?
I use it constantly, as I have for years: one mailbox for work, one for personal stuff. My whole life flows through email, it sometimes seems. How else would it work?
Email for me, as I alluded to in my previous comment, is mostly about interacting with automated systems. If I need to reset a password, I'll get an email with a link. My car insurance company and web host will occasionally email me asking me for payment. Google emails me to let me know I've logged in using a computer it doesn't recognize (like my phone).
There is obviously a problem here, there is so much talk about privacy and confidentiality and then you give all your communication in the hands of one company.
What I am trying to say is that there is a fundamental technical difference between emails and <faceslaktter>: The first is based on a distributed, well defined (RFCs??), open protocols and formats. The second? It is an application, running on the premises of some company...
> I get a photographer, video maker or someone working in fashion (I am sure there are other cases, I know those) using facebook or <x social tool> for business communication because it is trendy or it is more convenient
You know that's 99% of the world, right? You just described everybody but people who work in tech. How am I supposed to communicate with people who don't check their email?
> The first is based on a distributed, well defined (RFCs??), open protocols and formats.
Insecure open protocols and buggy formats. You know all emails travel in the open air, right? This was the primary reason I suggested we replace it, with a system that is secure, easy to use and that people can control.
I get that too, people not replying, but I don't think this is only a technical problem unfortunately. With IM systems where you easily get notifications on your phone you have more chance to get a faster response, also when receiving large amounts of emails one tends to skip many of them.. frustrating, for the sender, but that happens to me too from time to time.
I do work in tech though, also in academia, and email is still the first choice (well, from my experience, also I am in Europe.. maybe this counts?)
As for the technical aspect, SMTP and mail transfer protocols are part of a distributed system, and a distributed system must be open, this of course leads to the SPAM issue, but after what, more than 30 years? we have a couple of strong server side implementations that work well. And let's not forget TLS... emails travel in the "open air" as every other protocol that does not use encryption.
I agree that a redesign would be helpful to eliminate some basic issues we still have with emails, but it looks like that at the moment most are busy inventing new proprietary protocols for new way to chat and send emoji around...