I call for e-notifications

The number of e-mails in my inbox that are just notifications – short and automatically generated messages that inform me about something – has since long surpassed the number of regular e-mails. Most of them I don’t open and read. The information in the subject is usually enough and then I delete them. Some of them I have to open and read, just to view and click on a link to another location.

One of the “truths” in content management is that all content needs to be managed in some way or another. Depending on the purpose and intended (and actual) use of the content, it might need to have a different structure and format and be managed in a different way than other types of content…that is why we define and work with “content types”.

What strikes me every so often when I delete notifications received by e-mail is that I would really like to manage these in a different way than how I manage my other e-mails. For example, I don’t want them to be mixed up with other e-mails. I would like to view and manage them separately. I would also like to have them automatically deleted after some period of time. And, maybe it would be an idea to have all the information in the subject so that I don’t have to bother to read the body of message?

Much of what I ask for I can achieve - after some effort - by configuring an e-mail client such as Outlook. But should I really have to do this? Aren’t more people than me interested in viewing, using and managing notifications in another way than regular e-mails? If so, then not just I would welcome an initiative that defined, specified and enforced a new standard for notifications. Maybe there even is one on the way?