I have been spending a lot of time with my email client recently. It seems to me that this beast is becoming a more and more important feature in computing. I am finding that I use my email client more than a word processor or text editor for writing.

By working with HTML, I find that I don't need a whole lot of fancy formatting features. A spell checker will do quite nicely. And since my email client is always running (dutifully checking the mail every five minutes), it is a good place to jot down thoughts and notes. I can always email them to myself to make make them look even more important.

Working with email will become increasingly important in the future. The barriers between print and electronic media are breaking down. Email provides a fluid method for transmitting data between users. It isn't much of a stretch to see email transmitting data from authors to published web pages. And in fact, this is happening right now. I am writing this update as an email that will be posted to my web server.

Systems for writing and editing via the web and email will only get more powerful in the near future. Systems for document control and multi-author documents are currently being developed. These systems will achieve the goals I mentioned earlier in discussing ES Designs collaboration tools. ES Designs will utilize the work that we have done to date in this arena to incorporate and enhance new web-based document control systems for our clients.

On the application front, I am continuing to explore platform specific technologies that allow offline data collection. While ES Designs is committed to producing Internet solutions that are platform agnostic, it is clear that remote, wireless Internet access is still several years down the road. In many settings, we need to develop systems that can collect data offline and then update site databases when an Internet link is available. Work continues in developing a Newton/Internet hybrid system that will incorporate the strengths of both platforms. I will keep you informed of this progress.