IBM Watson Research Center

Technical Report: Collaborating Within - not Through - Email: Users Reinvent a Familiar Technology Collaborating Within - not Through - Email: Users Reinvent a Familiar Technology Technical Report #: 02-10 Author(s): Michael J. Muller, Daniel M. Gruen Category(s): Email, collaboration, reinvention Abstract A Collaborative User Experience Technical Report: more about CUE... We usually think about email as a single-user application that allows people to communicate through their email with other users. The people in our study used email differently: as a locale for collaboration within the same mailbox. We describe two ethnographic studies. The first study examined how executives and assistants shared the executive's mailbox. The second study examined how larger teams or groups shared a single mailbox to conduct a work operation. These studies illustrate reinvention of technology by users, and argue for increased flexibility in email tools. Full Report For more information, or to order a Technical Report, contact us.