Business
The calculator gave way to the spreadsheet. What will e-mail turn into?
CNET Editor-at-Large Esther Dyson talks with ZDNet Editor-in-Chief Dan Farber about "meta-mail," her term for the extension of e-mail into a broader set of tools that can manage processes and the user's attention, instead of just information and content. The user remains in a familiar workspace environment, but has the use of the equivalent of "a spreadsheet for process rather than a spreadsheet for numbers." She highlights examples of products on the path to meta-mail, including one from IBM, coming to market soon.
![zd-defaultauthor-zdnet-staff.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/7087afe5cd89377807bbbc5fd0463fbab2ff251b/2014/12/04/e51c8bfa-7b73-11e4-9a74-d4ae52e95e57/zd-defaultauthor-zdnet-staff.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)