Automatic conversion of email threads into collaborative workspaces

A system for automatically converting an email thread into a collaborative workspace comprising:

• an email thread configured to encapsulate data representing an exchange of electronic messages between designated members of an email system, wherein the electronic messages comprise a main message and at least one reply message, wherein one of the main message and the at least one reply optionally contains a file attachment;
• and
• an email conversion handler configured to automatically relocate the data of the email thread from the email system into a collaborative workspace of a collaboration system, wherein said data is stored as an artifact of the collaborative workspace, and, wherein the designated members of the email thread are members of the collaboration system.

A computer program product for automatically converting an email thread into a collaborative workspace comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:

• computer usable program code configured to detect an addition of a reply message to an existing email thread of an email system, wherein said existing email thread comprises a main message and at least one reply message;
• computer usable program code configured to, when user-defined conversion criteria are satisfied, automatically convert the existing email thread into an artifact of a collaborative workspace within a collaborative environment, wherein said collaborative workspace is specific to the existing email thread, wherein designated participants of the existing email thread are provided access to the collaborative workspace, and wherein the designated participants are members of the email system.