So, I was passing through a Hardees drive-through the other morning (had to feed the urge for a chicken biscuit), and decided to risk their coffee. While the coffee itself was just okay, what really impressed me was the labeling on the cup. This was no ordinary cup of joe, it was “Channel Islands Coffee”.

I want to begin this series on email management with a look at the strategy behind managing email more effectively. In today's economic climate, nobody implements a new system or process because they have money burning a hole in their pocket - and email management is no different. In order to get an improved process, which might also include technology, we need to determine why it is that we're doing it in the first place.

This thing called the information lifecycle isn’t exactly a topic for cocktail party chatter. Well, perhaps if the cocktail party is attended by some Access Sciences employees or MLIS students. But otherwise? I’m not so sure it would capture the imagination of very many everyday folks. But here I am writing about it today…because? OK, you've probably established by now that I’m a nerd, and I just spent my Sunday afternoon managing the lifecycle of my home information. (I love that disposition part. A little too much, according to some members of my family, who have periodically discovered that some documents they thought were worth keeping got taken out to the shredder.) But the information lifecycle was on my mind before my Sunday afternoon organizing-fest.

This past week was the Houston ARMA Chapter’s Spring Conference. The week before was a Houston area OpenText user group event. And there was a Sharepoint event recently thrown into the mix, too. What amazing programs! The presentations were powerful and the speakers delivered impactful messages that helped a host of participants. There were some topics on Web2.0, collaboration, retention management, technology, and many more. But every presentation and discussion had something in common: The information lifecycle.

What do we need to do to know what information we have? To know whether it is transient, for collaboration, a usable template, or a record? And why are these designations so important? And if they are so important, why do so many organizations have a hard time doing anything about it?