I don't think it can be killed. I do think you can make an email++, but agree with the other comment that it would have to only be for business. I think the thing that is missing is more structure and management capabilities. The only problem is how do you have it be interoperable with an email clients that don't have your new thing. One thing you have to start with is what are the things that really really suck with email, imo: inability to opt-out of threads, no ability to say what type of email it is (INFO, REQUEST, PITCH, COMPLETE, etc.), no ability say that a response/work is required and by whom and by what date, hard to not lose the important facts of the email after 25 replies, etc....
Quite frankly I can think of a bunch of other things as well. I don't have time right now but I would look at adding structured data at the top of the email that you can parse but shows up nicely as text in other clients, for example (assuming html email, just off the top....)
<div style="color:white;">
<div id="type">REQUEST</div>
<div id="response">No</div>
<div id="duedate">14Feb2016</div>
<div id="assignee">bob@example.com</div>
<div id="keypoint-1">We don't have a good backup procedure</div>
<div id="keypoint-2">We've never tested our backups</div>
<div id="keypoint-3">We've never built a clone network from our backup</div>
</div>
You can now parse/search/filter based on this data. You can manage tasks right in email and have a button to say "done" that sends an email back to the originator that they know it is done. There are a lot of other things too but I need to go do work now :(. I'll monitor this thread if you want to discuss further. (/sigh, I wish HN had integrated private messages)
Comments
I don't think it can be killed. I do think you can make an email++, but agree with the other comment that it would have to only be for business. I think the thing that is missing is more structure and management capabilities. The only problem is how do you have it be interoperable with an email clients that don't have your new thing. One thing you have to start with is what are the things that really really suck with email, imo: inability to opt-out of threads, no ability to say what type of email it is (INFO, REQUEST, PITCH, COMPLETE, etc.), no ability say that a response/work is required and by whom and by what date, hard to not lose the important facts of the email after 25 replies, etc....
Quite frankly I can think of a bunch of other things as well. I don't have time right now but I would look at adding structured data at the top of the email that you can parse but shows up nicely as text in other clients, for example (assuming html email, just off the top....)
<div style="color:white;"> <div id="type">REQUEST</div> <div id="response">No</div> <div id="duedate">14Feb2016</div> <div id="assignee">bob@example.com</div> <div id="keypoint-1">We don't have a good backup procedure</div> <div id="keypoint-2">We've never tested our backups</div> <div id="keypoint-3">We've never built a clone network from our backup</div> </div>
You can now parse/search/filter based on this data. You can manage tasks right in email and have a button to say "done" that sends an email back to the originator that they know it is done. There are a lot of other things too but I need to go do work now :(. I'll monitor this thread if you want to discuss further. (/sigh, I wish HN had integrated private messages)