In order for ANY collaboration technology to achieve the heady heights of functional bliss you advocate towards the end of your article, moving ‘beyond’ the DND implementation (which I actually find counter-intuitive to the natural UX philosophy behind Slack) it would have to be able to naturally, or through algorithmic prowess, achieve the following:

1. Assess the attention span of the individual user for available brain cycles, on a variable basis… without being intrusive as to the productive process in the first place.
2. Be able to, on the fly, prioritise certain activities over others based on the shifting requirements of the individuals life, on a day to day, sometimes, minute to minute basis, and configure appropriate interface elements to match the desired ‘better things’ that should be done, at any given point in time.
3. Be able to assess the frequency and quantity of said ‘better things’, based on an ever varying set of criteria matched not only to tasks performed, but also to some form of monitored intellectual / emotional balance and extension so that the nirvana of modelling about “…how well that time was spent”.

Wow. Thats some upgrade you’re after. This may end up as a real divorce, rather than just a break up. Hope the pre-nup was fair and reasonable for both parties. Is there someone(thing) else perhaps? Deep down, sounds like you still love each other to me. Counselling perhaps? Dr Phil even?

For me, I’m quite enjoying the subtle wins we’re experiencing as a small team who are:

• saving a truckload each month by not having to have a physical office, with the assistance of a range of tools, including Slack, which for us, actually enhance productivity rather than detract from it
• enjoying increased focus and dialogue which is created around specific areas of interest on the team, that would unlikely be talked about and archived otherwise… particularly due to the gluggy nature of the dreaded email ‘thread’
• responding to the challenge of managing our time and lifestyle balance with the shift in flexibility that these tools bring with them.

I know I’m probably just spousing the rhetoric of most early stage Slack users, and I’m reading with interest some of the other responses here too.

To the third point above, as my favourite sociology lecturer once said:

“The net result of any new technology is that, after its function is performed and integrates with society, it simply changes peoples values”.

This is where the innovation curve ALWAYS meets it’s greatest foe.

e.g. I currently have 62934 messages marked as ‘unread’ in my email inbox. They date back quite a few years. This drives most people I come across who notice it in the dock there, quite bonkers. I find it whimsical at best, and really am just not bothered by it. The mail file takes comparatively little space on my drive, and I get to see the conversation trail with anyone I’ve emailed with. It’s all backed up and safe, and just no big deal…. except for that little number in the dock … 62934…5….6…. etc…

The user case logic for this is basically that I find the text search function mostly adequate and I just don’t use mail folders for mail history or archiving. It’s certainly not because I like having a piece of software tell me I’m unorganised with a little red number. If anything it makes me not want to use email for everything, but just the ‘right’ things — like outbound async comms and the classic store and forward experience. Enter Slack! Yay!

All this all reminds me of Negroponte’s writing on agents. Here we are.

Can’t wait to see what’s next.