A Community or a Club?

While email's continued evolution is significant, what it has retained from the old web sets it apart from the other pretty, convenient apps. Email is an open, interoperable protocol. Someone can use Google's service, spin up a server of her own, or send messages through Microsoft's enterprise software. And yet all of these people can communicate s... See more

Email is actually a tremendous, decentralized, open platform on which new, innovative things can and have been built. In that way, email represents a different model from the closed ecosystems we see proliferating across our computers and devices.

Community means a lot of things to a lot of people. Whether it’s your local running group, a book club, your gym squad, family, or membership in an exclusive club, belonging to something is meaningful. Our identities, while obviously unique to us, are so shaped by the influence and power of community that it remains a biologically human need to hav... See more