Coordination in message-based environments: restructuring Internet e-mail to accomplish tasks

In this paper we consider e-mail as a task management tool. Our general goal is to restructure the domain of e-mail. The purpose is to make e-mail even more suitable for message-based communication and coordination of work in virtual and real organizations, where many users are involved. Specifically, we aim to design a control mechanism to support the identification and delegation of tasks and dissemination of information to individuals and groups in an organization using e-mail. We present and briefly discuss the results of an explorative study of task management in an e-mail user's daily electronic life. Some basic relations for a task-oriented and user-centered restructuring of the e-mail domain are identified. A tentative framework named CUDOS is described, and our ideas for a prototype are presented, with a previously developed conceptual model of information management in e-mail as a starting point.