Using Social Metadata In Email Triage: Lessons From The Field

Email archives are full of social information, including how messages are addressed and frequency of contact between senders and receivers. to study the use. of this rich metadata for email management, particularly email triage, we deployed SNARF, a prototype tool which uses social metadata to organize received email by correspondent, sort received email by past interactions, and filter email into multiple views. We discuss the lessons from a seven month deployment, including the value of organizing by personally addressed mail, the unexpected value of SNARF for email awareness, challenges with handling workflow, and ways to use social metadata in applications.