There is a new startup aiming to change the way we work and view email, in what is being dubbed as the beginning of an anti-email cultural revolution.
Asana is the brainchild of a 30-year-old entrepreneur who wants to change how the world views email and help move it from being a crutch and annoyance into something the world relies on less and less.
Dustin Moskowitz, who is no stranger to startups as he and his college roommate Mark Zuckerberg created the world's largest social network, Facebook, now has his sights on email and changing how it is perceived.
Asana software works by developing and combining elements of communal notebook, social networking and instant messaging along with a virtual calendar to allow groups of employees to create and share content and information with others without being forced to send out email memos every time an issue or idea arises.
In essence, it takes email to the cloud, where employees will be able to have instant access to a myriad of resources and messaging tools. The move should help avoid pesky email creation, finding the recipient's address and sending a message to either one individual or a list, a missive which can get lost in the dozens of emails received daily.
"We are trying to make all the soul-sucking work that comes with email go away," Justin Rosenstein says as Moskovitz nods, sitting across from him in a former brewery that serves as Asana's headquarters. "This came out of a deep, heartfelt pain that Dustin and I were experiencing, along with just about everyone around us." Rosenstein, a former Facebook and Google product manager, runs Asana along with Moskovitz.
According to The Radicati Group, email has driven much of the corporate world, where an employee will send and receive an average of 121 email messages daily from their business account, an increase of 15 percent from 2011.
The move comes on the heels of high-profile cases where companies have been ordered via court-issued warrants to deliver emails from users to government agencies. Tech Times reports that Microsoft has refused to acquiesce to U.S. government demands it turn over emails from thousands of users.
The Asana software could help alleviate concerns that emails could be hacked and kept in a database by third-party observers. The reason is simple: companies won't be using email.
