E-mail in Semantic Task Management

Abstract

Email management applications are among themostly used tools for collaboration in enterprises. They areoften overused and simultaneously criticised for lacking meansto prevent cognitive overload of the users and off-target value ofthe deployed software. Apparently, their value proposition doesnot cover the user needs for the management of personal communication,information and collaboration appropriately. Recently,several approaches towards Semantic Email handling have beenproposed to ensure more efficient use of contextual information.Rather novel Semantic Task Management approaches have beenconsidered to support break down of the personal workload interms of information, communication and context management.In this paper, we propose to combine the strengths of semanticweb technologies, email technology and task management. Webase our research upon results obtained in the EU projectsNepomuk and Ecospace, and describe the synergies that resultfrom the introduced combination. To illustrate the idea ofintegrating task management and email by means of semantictechnologies, we refer to a prototype that we have developedwithin the framework of the Nepomuk project.We also conductedcase study interviews that underline the expected benefits ofcombining the three technologies.