Finally, The Internet As Intended.

Lars Ploughman pens the "10 to 1" rule that demonstrates why email vs online collaboration tools like ProjectSpaces (shameless plug for my company’s product) is a no contest:

Imagine for a moment that you are managing a project with ten other participants. Let’s say that an important change to the subsequent phase of the project has just been agreed with the sponsors and you need to communicate it to the project team. If you do it via email, this may be the result:

• 9 people read the email
• 8 people file the email (in their private folders, thereby duplicating effort)
• 7 people are interrupted in their work or thoughts when the email arrives
• 6 people will never be able to find the email again
• 5 people didn’t actually need to know about the change
• 4 people joining the project in the next phase wouldn’t have received the email
• 3 people will be able to find the email again, should they need to
• 2 people will check back to the email at a later date when they need the information
• 1 of them will understand the email in context, be able to find it at a later date and action it