Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge Management Systems • Week 5 Schedule- Syllabus Updates• Questions• Assignments

- Blogging• More Commentary• Evaluations of the blog process

- Email

Email Systems, Uses and HabitsEmail Systems, Uses and Habits• What email client(s) do you use?

- Why?- How Long?

• Multiple Mailboxes? - How Many?- For What?

• Filters?- How Many?- For What?

• Other Features?• Other Devices?• Social Networks• Protocols

Email Overload – PIMEmail Overload – PIM• New Uses Causes Overload

- Task Management- Personal Archiving- Asynchronous Communication

• Study of Mailboxes and User Interviews• Does Speed/Reliability of Email Transmission

and Replying Change It’s Use? - Conversational- Accountable

• Email not “One touch” (informational)• Changes Work Throughout the Day• Constantly Checking

Email as HabitatEmail as Habitat• Traditionally- Messaging - Communication- One to One, One to Many Communication

• Increasingly- Information Management

• Access to Documents• Address Books - Contacts• Portal for (Networked) Information

- Coordination and Collaboration• Tasks

- To Do’s- Reminders

• Workflow- Document Creation and Editing- Meeting Planning and Coordination

Email as Habitat 2Email as Habitat 2• PC Users Spend Most of Their Day in

their Email Application- Defining “Knowledge Workers”?- Support Staff

• Personal Information Management- To Do (Marking up or Sending to Oneself)- Contact Management

• Project Tracking• EVERYTHING?

Email as Habitat 3Email as Habitat 3• Too Much of a Good Thing- Filters- Folders

• Searching May Be Faster - Time to File- Time to Find

• Searching Not Helping to Build (Traditional) Conceptual Model of Tasks or Messages

Email as Habitat 4Email as Habitat 4• Types of Folders- Who – Sender- Where – Organization of Sender(s)- What – Project- Personal Interests• Professional• Private

- What Else?• Archives• Templates

Email as Habitat 5Email as Habitat 5• Problems with Email Applications- Folder Organization- Sorting- Finding- Filtering• Easier to Set up• Filter after Reading or Event

• One Application Not Suited for All Users- Outlook - Outlook Express- Status & Occupation- Roles and Responsibilities

Email as Habitat 6Email as Habitat 6• More Exposure to Email Use = More

Checking Email- Alternate Devices- Always-on Devices

• More Experience = More Feature Use• Different Features for Different Users• Different Features for Different Uses

• Projects• Types of Tasks

Improving EmailImproving Email• Threads of Messages- “Conversation Tree”- Automatic vs. Manual Configuration- Types of Conversations (GIBIS)

• “Thrasks”- Individual (feedback)- Group (assignments)

• Views & Visualization- Oldest/First at Top (contrast with blogs)- Multiple Windows, Icons, Graphics

TaskMasterTaskMaster1. Keeping Track of Concurrent Actions2. Marking Items3. Managing Activities Over Time4. Managing Deadlines and Reminders5. Collating Related Items and

Associated Files and Links6. Application Switching and Window

Management7. Getting a Task-Oriented Overview

Easily

TaskMasterTaskMaster• Helping with Overload- Number of Threads- Frequency of Related Messages

• Assigns Meta-Information- From the Thrask View- Within an Open Item (Contact Info)

• Warning Bars• Action Clusters• Task-Specific Contact Lists

TaskMasterTaskMaster

Reinventing EmailReinventing Email• What Kinds of Messages are Suited for

(Current) Email ?• What Other Types of Messaging Tools?- Instant Messaging- Newsgroups- Document Management• Annotations• Approval• Distribution Lists

Reinventing EmailReinventing Email• Separation or Integration?- Messages- Address Book – Contacts- Documents- Links- Web (other)

• Indexing and Classifying Email- Logging (transaction, permission, task)- Searching (internal, personal, external)- Ranking (most email currently equal)

Redesigning Email for 21Redesigning Email for 21stst Century Century• Little Change – GUIs & Attachments• Overloaded & Overwhelmed- Slow Response – No Response- Loss

• No One Solution- Multiple Features- Appropriate for each User, Organization or Task- Improved Interface & Interaction

• Timelines• Document Summarization• Annotations

2121stst Century Email Interfaces Century Email Interfaces

FLANNELFLANNEL• Adding Computational Capabilities to

Email• Email is traditionally just text, in

chronological order• Improve Endpoints: Sending &

Receiving- Interfaces

• Improve Medium: Protocols & Infrastructure- Web Server – HTTP

FLANNEL 2FLANNEL 2• Features- Translations- To Do List with Tracking- Dynamic Signature (or other)- Links (Keyword Searching) Integrated- Workflow

• Processing While In Transit or Upon Receipt• Based on Sender, then Receiver?• More Decisions to Make When Sending?

IshmailIshmail• Support 3 Basic Methods- Don’t File & Search- File Frequently in Many Mailboxes- File Intermittently

• Server-Based with IMAP extension• Filtering

- Alarms- Mailboxes- Incoming & Outgoing

• Interface with Multiple Windows/Views• Deferral of Message (Sending) Delivery• Archiving – Periodic & Stack• Personas

MailCatMailCat• Filing with an Intelligent Assistant- Adaptive Text Classifier for Guessing (3) Folders- Action Classifier? (Maxim’s Memory Based

Retrieval Matching)- 80-90% Accurate

• Filing Can Compliment Searching- How Many Actions to File?

• Multiple Locations (Aliases, Links)• Simple (Only) Interface (“Move To” buttons)

BitfrostBitfrost• Categorizing Messages from Inbox Automatically• “Programming” Filters Too Difficult• Categories of Interest• Improve on Known Email Use

- Four Types of Users- Filters vs. Losing Sight of Email

• Understanding Automatic Categorizing Difficult for Users

• Too Much Categorization?• Categories vs. Folders• New Messages Difficult to Deal With• Notification vs. Filing or Hiding

Email ProtocolsEmail Protocols• POP

- Decentralized Storage- Personal Archives

• IMAP- Centralized Storage- Server Archives

• How Will New Devices Extend These Protocols?- Filtering as Ringtone?- Caller ID

• How Will P2P or other Collaborative/Cooperative Technologies (or paradigms) Change Email Use?- Always On (for Categorizing, Filtering and Automatically

Respondng)

Email on the DesktopEmail on the Desktop• Integrate Mailboxes with OS File

Structure• Group Files and Messages in Interface• Provide Direct and Indirect Manipulation

of Information- Centralized on Servers- Synchronized with All Devices (PIM Hub)

Email Use ImprovementEmail Use Improvement• New System Evaluation (for Improvement)- Real Users- Actual Work

• Difficult to Get Individuals to Switch to New Applications or Technologies- Current Features Not Used- No Learning Curve for Critical Application- Lock-in vs. Import/Export

• More Difficult to Get Organization To Switch- Installed Base- Migration- Licensing- Training