Email Dashboard

I recently wrote a post about the newest batch of email-related startups. Pete Warden has compiled a list of ten tools defining the future of email.  It's a worthwhile roundup to check out.

A little tour around the blog world today…

Gloom and Doom – or Capital Efficency writes Brad Feld about what most everyone in the startup world is writing about these days – bracing for tough economic times.  He references an excellent post Capital Efficiency Finds Its Moment by Fred Wilson that talks about doing a lot while staying lean and mean.

I’ll refrain from linking to the countless blog posts talking about how in times of economic turmoil companies should focus on reducing expenses, having necessary capital in place, and growing revenues.  Thanks for that newsflash, everyone!

Instead I’ll point you to Howard Lindzon’s great post Too Small To Fail. He applies that mantra to finance and startups, but I really think that can apply to so many people’s situation, whether as an individual, a startup company, or a team/group in a bigger company.  While huge macro-level stuff is going on around us, almost all of us can find ways to succeed in our little corner of the world if we are smart and nimble. 

Which brings me to Scoble’s post on The Enterprise Email Crisis.  Of course this is a major pain point!  Most of us are receiving 100 or more emails every day – and that’s after all the obvious spam is filtered out.  That’s hours a day of reading, processing, and responding to email.  As individuals and companies find themselves needing to do more with less, time and efficiency become even more critical. 

Instead of checking where the Dow is every five minutes seconds, I’m doing as much as possible to take advantage of the critical need for people to work more efficiently, especially when it comes to communication, collaboration, and email.  We’ve been working on measurable, tangible ways to help people be more productive with email at ClearContext for a while and have been looking even further into the future of solutions with colleagues at the Information Overload Research Group.  And oh yeah, discussing these problems with a bunch of smart people at Defrag (dh1 for reg discount if you decide to go!). A lot of things are going to slow down in these times, but innovation shouldn’t be one of them.