In an article in Monday's Wall Street Journal Jessica Vascellaro argues that the tipping point has arrived for the heirs apparent of e-mail, one of the internet's first, most defining — and most abused — applications. Can this be? In an appearance on CNBC's Power Lunch today I got the chance to bat this idea around a bit, but not enough, so the conversation continues here. Vascellaro has it just about right , i think, and although reports of the death of e-mail are obviously premature it's fun to look for signs of a paradigm shift within a paradigm a mere 38 years after the first e-mail was sent . After all, haven't many of the other original internet protocols already been shown the door, like Usenet , WAIS , Gopher and Archie ? What makes e-mail so invincible? Continue reading on Epicenter