Really interesting commentary over on Dan Rubin's SuperfluousBanter, "Email Doesn't Scale," which is about wanting to start thinking about designing a better form of online communication than e-mail. With some thoughts of his own and some links to other people who have been thinking about the same idea, it's one of those sorts of things that sounds completely insane when you hear it at first ("Who would ever want to see television in color?!"), but then as he gets into it, it sorta does kinda make sense. Not that there's any answer sitting right there waiting to be adopted a week from now, but it's a fun thing to think about. And hey, if you happen to be some crackpot inventor, here's your chance to come up with the next big idea and change the way the world communicates, without ever making a dime and no one remembering who you were, just like poor old Todd Email, the inventor of modern electronic mail. Here's a bit:

Email isn't broken for everyone (or at least, if it is they don't realize it yet), but I find more people becoming frustrated with email every week. Add the whole SPAM problem into the mix (over the last 6 months, more and more of my valid incoming/outgoing messages are getting caught by SPAM filters than ever) and I just see email continuing its downward spiral.

I'm not sure of the solution -- as long as my clients continue to send me emails and expect a response, I'm a bit nervous to tell them to shove it...