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The company I work at is matrix-managed, meaning there is both a product management structure and a functional management structure. You end up with a lot of people interested in similar things but not on the same project, and effective communication can be hard.

I would like software to allow folks to self-subscribe to self-managed topics lists.

Example:

Alice works on project Panda. Bob works on project Puppy. They essentially live in different worlds, but happen to work for the same external customer, Charlie.

Bob has an important conversation with Charlie that should be communicated to the rest of the organization. Though they are on different projects and rarely interact with each other, Bob remembers that Alice ultimately works for Charlie too, and includes her on an email detailing the results of the conversation with Charlie. Bob forgot that David also works for Charlie on yet another project, and David ends up not knowing anything about the important conversation that occurred until he hears it through the grapevine.

I want software that will help me manage email lists to overcome this type of issue. In this case, Alice, Bob, and David would all subscribe to the "Communications with Charlie" topic and get updates when someone thought the interaction was substantial enough to warrant sending a group email.

The software should (required):

1. Have a web interface that allows creation and deletion of topics folks can subscribe to

2. Have a web interface that allows individuals to subscribe to topics

3. Allow administrator to subscribe/unsubscribe for others, set permissions, manage topics, etc.

4. This intended to operate only within a company, but should have some sort of user authentication anyway. (The web page is not open to the world.)

The software could (optional):

1. Allow for different types of subscriptions (e.g. decision-maker, responsible individual, FYI, just curious)

2. Have a back end database to manage all this.

3. While free is always good, this does not have to be free. Especially not of it's easy to use and good at what it does.

4. Integrate with Outlook/Exchange. I want to be able to go to the web page and push the button for the "Panda Project" topic and have it pop up an Outlook email with the to field and the cc field already populated with the right folks based on the type of subscription they have.

Maybe Outlook already does this, but from what I've seen it's a top-down, heavy-handed single-point-of-failure list. I want something that individual folks can subscribe to and unsubscribe from whenever they want.

Does software like this exist? It may, but my Google vocabulary didn't reveal any. The most I found was for managing email contacts for sales leads, but it did not seem to fit right.

The company I work at is matrix-managed, meaning there is both a product management structure and a functional management structure. You end up with a lot of people interested in similar things but not on the same project, and effective communication can be hard.

I would like software to allow folks to self-subscribe to self-managed topics lists.

Example:

Alice works on project Panda. Bob works on project Puppy. They essentially live in different worlds, but happen to work for the same external customer, Charlie.

Bob has an important conversation with Charlie that should be communicated to the rest of the organization. Though they are on different projects and rarely interact with each other, Bob remembers that Alice ultimately works for Charlie too, and includes her on an email detailing the results of the conversation with Charlie. Bob forgot that David also works for Charlie on yet another project, and David ends up not knowing anything about the important conversation that occurred until he hears it through the grapevine.

I want software that will help me manage email lists to overcome this type of issue. In this case, Alice, Bob, and David would all subscribe to the "Communications with Charlie" topic and get updates when someone thought the interaction was substantial enough to warrant sending a group email.

The software should (required):

1. Have a web interface that allows creation and deletion of topics folks can subscribe to

2. Have a web interface that allows individuals to subscribe to topics

3. Allow administrator to subscribe/unsubscribe for others, set permissions, manage topics, etc.

4. This intended to operate only within a company, but should have some sort of user authentication anyway. (The web page is not open to the world.)

The software could (optional):

1. Allow for different types of subscriptions (e.g. decision-maker, responsible individual, FYI, just curious)

2. Have a back end database to manage all this.

3. While free is always good, this does not have to be free. Especially not of it's easy to use and good at what it does.

4. Integrate with Outlook/Exchange. I want to be able to go to the web page and push the button for the "Panda Project" topic and have it pop up an Outlook email with the to field and the cc field already populated with the right folks based on the type of subscription they have.

Maybe Outlook already does this, but from what I've seen it's a top-down, heavy-handed single-point-of-failure list. I want something that individual folks can subscribe to and unsubscribe from whenever they want.

Does software like this exist? It may, but my Google vocabulary didn't reveal any. The most I found was for managing email contacts for sales leads, but it did not seem to fit right.

~~Bump~~ If this doesn't exist, I might just write it and sell it.

The company I work at is matrix-managed, meaning there is both a product management structure and a functional management structure. You end up with a lot of people interested in similar things but not on the same project, and effective communication can be hard.

I would like to be able to allow folks to subscribe for topics so they can be on the email list of relevant items.

Example:

Alice works on project Panda. Bob works on project Puppy. They essentially live in different worlds, but happen to work for the same external customer, Charlie.

Bob has an important conversation with Charlie that should be communicated to the rest of the organization. Though they are on different projects and rarely interact with each other, Bob remembers that Alice ultimately works for Charlie too, and includes her on an email detailing the results of the conversation with Charlie. Bob forgot that David also works for Charlie on yet another project, and David ends up not knowing anything about the important conversation that occurred until he hears it through the grapevine.

I want software that will help me manage email lists to overcome this type of issue. In this case, Alice, Bob, and David would all subscribe to the "Communications with Charlie" topic and get updates when someone thought the interaction was substantial enough to warrant sending a group email.

The software should:

1. Have a web interface that allows creation and deletion of topics folks can subscribe to

2. Have a web interface that allows individuals to subscribe to topics

3. Allow administrator to subscribe/unsubscribe for others, set permissions, manage topics, etc.

4. Allow for different types of subscriptions (e.g. decision-maker, responsible individual, FYI, just curious)

5. Have a back end database to manage all this. I guess this isn't required, but it would seem like the smart way to implement it.

6. Integrate with Outlook/Exchange. I want to be able to go to the web page and push the button for the "Panda Project" topic and have it pop up an Outlook email with the to field and the cc field already populated with the right folks based on the type of subscription they have.

7. This intended to operate only within a company, but should have some sort of user authentication anyway. (The web page is not open to the world.)

8. While free is always good, this does not have to be free. Especially not of it's easy to use and good at what it does.

Maybe Outlook already does this, but from what I've seen it's a top-down, heavy-handed single-point-of-failure list. I want something that individual folks can subscribe to and unsubscribe from whenever they want.

Does software like this exist? It may, but my Google vocabulary didn't reveal any. The most I found was for managing email contacts for sales leads, but it did not seem to fit right.

The company I work at is matrix-managed, meaning there is both a product management structure and a functional management structure. You end up with a lot of people interested in similar things but not on the same project, and effective communication can be hard.

I would like software to allow folks to self-subscribe to self-managed topics lists.

Example:

Alice works on project Panda. Bob works on project Puppy. They essentially live in different worlds, but happen to work for the same external customer, Charlie.

Bob has an important conversation with Charlie that should be communicated to the rest of the organization. Though they are on different projects and rarely interact with each other, Bob remembers that Alice ultimately works for Charlie too, and includes her on an email detailing the results of the conversation with Charlie. Bob forgot that David also works for Charlie on yet another project, and David ends up not knowing anything about the important conversation that occurred until he hears it through the grapevine.

I want software that will help me manage email lists to overcome this type of issue. In this case, Alice, Bob, and David would all subscribe to the "Communications with Charlie" topic and get updates when someone thought the interaction was substantial enough to warrant sending a group email.

The software should (required):

1. Have a web interface that allows creation and deletion of topics folks can subscribe to

2. Have a web interface that allows individuals to subscribe to topics

3. Allow administrator to subscribe/unsubscribe for others, set permissions, manage topics, etc.

4. This intended to operate only within a company, but should have some sort of user authentication anyway. (The web page is not open to the world.)

The software could (optional):

1. Allow for different types of subscriptions (e.g. decision-maker, responsible individual, FYI, just curious)

2. Have a back end database to manage all this.

3. While free is always good, this does not have to be free. Especially not of it's easy to use and good at what it does.

4. Integrate with Outlook/Exchange. I want to be able to go to the web page and push the button for the "Panda Project" topic and have it pop up an Outlook email with the to field and the cc field already populated with the right folks based on the type of subscription they have.

Maybe Outlook already does this, but from what I've seen it's a top-down, heavy-handed single-point-of-failure list. I want something that individual folks can subscribe to and unsubscribe from whenever they want.

Does software like this exist? It may, but my Google vocabulary didn't reveal any. The most I found was for managing email contacts for sales leads, but it did not seem to fit right.