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"Email becomes a dangerous distraction," headlines a guest column by an "expert in collaboration and communications" in the usually tech-savvy Sydney Morning Herald. If you check mail every five minutes, you lose eight hours a week of mental concentration, according to some glib algebra done on the results of a study. The cure for distracting email conversations? "Twitter ... instant messaging ... wikis ... blogs." You've guessed this already, but allow me to edit the author's bio for clarity: Suw Charman-Anderson is a freelance social software consultant.