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Will the notion of email itself survive another 10 years?
I answered this question form Jay Cuthrell at Linkedin, but unfortunately I deleted it. I think it's a good answer, so I'll post it here. What do you think?
It' s all about the information and technology evolution.
The email protocols (POP. SMTP, MIME, etc.) are really old and their history can be traced to the 1970' s. They were not designed to comply with our days' necessities. In the beginning, the main concerns were only basic communication issues. Privacy, security, rich media contents and even efficiency were not a priority. These protocols are evolving constantly, but its really difficult to keep the pace as the complexity of modern communications increases, facilitating the adoption of alternate technologies that can fill the gap. With the adoption of IPv6 (Network Layer) exists the potential to fulfil many issues related to security and privacy; and on top of it, email protocols (mostly at the Application Layer) can have a chance.
Technically, email protocols and technologies can have an extended "life span", but the ways we create, share and store information could represent a serious threat to the good ol' email.
Advanced collaborative tools, mobility, communications convergence, rich internet applications and virtualization (for storage, desktop and servers) are emerging technologies that make the email just another way to communicate. The times when USENET, IRC and the email where the only choices are gone.
I don't think that the email will disappear, but its eminence will diminish greatly in the very near future, mingling with other new an exciting technologies that promise security, privacy, everlasting presence, rich contents management, speed and mobility.
Time will tell.
You can read the other answers directly from LinkedIn.
