It will be interesting to see how this works out.

I don't think it will work well. There just are too many things that email excell at. Email is good for targeting specific people with a well thought out and formulated question - and answering those questions.

But it would do good to weed out the things that email don't handle very well. There are also things that email DO well but still should be handled through other means. "Memo"-like messages from the boss is much better presented through internal web pages, blogs and the like.

There are also a whole ecosystem of different systems that gives you the functionality of twitter, facebook, newsgroups, blogging and anything in between - but exclusive to your corporate network. I'd love to try something like those in a work environment. "tweeting" or blogging about some dilemmas or problems might be infinetly more fun and productive than bogging people with emails ...

The best way to improve email productivity is to get rid of the idea that email is something you "read". Going through correspondence is an active task, not passive reading, so you "do" or "process" email. Schedule time for it (such as twice a day), and don't touch your email client at other times.

The email is processed according to the 4 D's: DO - Delete - Defer - Delegate. If you can't answer immediately (or if it takes more than 2 minutes to answer), move it to another folder and schedule a time to answer it later. Have a folder system so you know where to archive the stuff you want to keep. Delegate whatever someone else should take care of and delete the rest. Your inbox should be empty when you're done.

Like any other tools, instant messaging have their place and function. What I don't like is the idea that I can be interupted whenever, wherever. But I guess if we used IM more internally at work I would have to learn how to fine tune the "available" settings...