11. Scalability to low usage (i.e. Low critical mass)

Imagine a company where everyone has e-mail, but 1/5 never check their e-mail and 1/5 only check infrequently. Even for a loyal e-mail user, the system won't be used because 40% of the people who use e-mail won't respond in a timely way. You'll become frustrated and use the phone more and more often since you can't keep track of who e-mails and who doesn't. The e-mail system essentially unused and therefore wasted, because in order to be useful, it has to meet certain assumptions of guarantees about ubiquity of usage, in order to mostly replace a known technology (ex. telephone)

Example(s): Video teleconference works well. If you use it and I use it, great, we can have a VTC meeting, if not, we won't we have other ways of exchanging information that are simply less convenient. There's no phenomenon of a message sitting in an unread mailbox.

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