Beware the projections

We repeatedly hear that data storage requirements double each year, and the number of emails sent by the end of 2002 is a figure so great that it defies understanding. But in my experience, it’s not like I am receiving double the number of emails each year which actually mean something. In many cases, email has replaced voice communication and allow business dealings to be conducted irrespective of time zone and locations, even though it is still faster to conclude settlements using the telephone. Email introduces delays into negotiations which can either be a blessing or a curse: a blessing if you require some time to consider other factors, or a curse if you are pushing for fast settlement.

Let’s face it, the majority of email we receive is rubbish. I know it keeps growing each year, but we keep deleting even more each year. In fact, one could assume that if we could eliminate spam then those scary figures would not look so scary. What does impact on storage requirements are factors like the conversion of paper documents to electronic files, and the increasingly large size of simple documents. An MS Word document once required 30KB of space, now it requires several times that storage space, but it does pretty much the same thing. The same applies for operating systems, applications and so on.

I would argue that the “email explosion” argument does not require more storage, but better management. Like filtering out the rubbish before it clogs up your system. Users sharing the one file or attachment rather than replicating it across a variety of systems. Indeed, the vast majority of email client applications in use around the world need dramatic re-writing and a completely new approach.

Email started as a personal tool for communication, but it’s become one of the most oft-used applications on any desktop, used to negotiate deals, settlements and issue official communication.

It’s no longer just a personal tool, but it is still perceived as one. My theory is that users treat it like conversations in a public bar, and we’re not just talking about council workers here. Look at the crucial piece of evidence used in the Micrsoft anti-trust trial - an email among MS execs planning their systemic downfall of Netscape. Would they ever actually print out those statements, sign them and file them? Never. Yet a forensic data specialist dug it out of a file server and the rest is history.

The problem with email clients is that they can be “personalized”, ie, abused. They can be used for personal communications, sending inappropriate content (whethere it’s porn or private data) as well as disseminating viruses. But the vast majority of email client applications used by millions of people around the world, day-after-day as critical business tools, are offered almost as an afterthought. They have none of the inherent checks of a proper database-driven system used for accounts, human resources, production management and so on. No, the humble email client is probably used more often than all of those, yet quite frankly it’s hardly industrial-strength, rather it is littered with bugs that would not be tolerated in a mission critical system. Of course, there are the high-end messaging systems like Exchange and Notes which do address these issues with varying degrees of success, but in terms of end users - how many people use those systems, compared to the free email clients that come with popular browsers?

While it’s undeniable that all businesses require more storage, year-in, year-out, this may take the form of more blank CDs which they burn on a regular basis.By that time a knowledge worker has made the call on what should and should not be retained. Eliminating the rubbish to begin with would make everyone’s lives a lot easier, and may cause those future-mongers to re-write their projections.