E-mail is dead? Don't take my anti-boor shield away!

Wall Street Journal writer Jessica E. Vascellaro recently wrote a provocative article arguing that e-mail is giving way to other, richer forms of communication: Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and (on an approach vector) Google Wave (GOOG).

Fifteen years ago, electronic mail was fresh and shiny, efficient and economical. Today, it's a stone ax next to communication methods that let us tag, filter, and engage in real-time exchanges, group conversations, and multimedia. In a society that increasingly depends on consensus for decision-making, these new tools play an important role in keeping the tribes intact.Yet e-mail will still have its place in this world for years to come.