Electronic messaging systems, such as email, Instant Messenger, and social networking sites, are commonly used for communication both within and outside the workplace. Generally, a user composes an electronic message with information to be received and reviewed by a recipient. The electronic message received by the recipient can be stored, replied to, or forwarded to other recipients, which can result in the addition or deletion of content and recipients. Thus, organization, sharing, and distribution of the information through the electronic messaging systems can be overwhelming and difficult to manage due to the changing environment.
Current electronic messaging systems offer keyword searches to identify electronic messages. However, keyword searches are limited since the keyword must be included in the content of the electronic message and users often have no control over the content if they are recipients of the electronic message. Commonly, the electronic messaging systems also provide a list or “address book” of potential recipients for addressing electronic messages for delivery. However, the list fails to identify which recipients are interested in receiving electronic messages regarding a particular subject matter and a user may be unable to determine the appropriate recipients or obtain email address for the appropriate recipient.
Content tagging systems are available to organize electronic information gathered by users using tags. The tags are assigned to a piece of electronic info and can describe a topic or content of the info, which allows users to easily find the tagged information through a tag search. Conventional tagging systems include Delicious and Diigo. However, use of the current tagging systems can be impractical and burdensome due to the need to incorporate a separate system into a user's daily routine. For example, each user client must be installed with the tagging system and registered with the appropriate server. Thus, the tagging systems are not easily incorporated. Also, the tagging systems fail to generate and maintain associations between tags, electronic information, and users.
Further, content sharing systems, such as wiki workplaces and boundaryless organizations, emphasize group collaboration with user interest being broadcast and user participation changing over time. However, the dynamics of the content sharing systems are often difficult to manage due to the constantly changing environment and fail to address generating and maintaining groups of users based on interest in particular subject matter.
Thus, a system and method for unobtrusively integrating content tagging and distribution with existing communication structures and services is needed.