Usually, I conduct my interviews via email, phone or in person. But for this story, I used Kamune. What's Kamune? It's an online work space where individuals chat, share documents and -- most importantly -- consolidate information around a select topic or task. In my case, it happened to be the project of writing this story about Kamune.

Developed by Raja Abburi, the former general manager of Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Outlook Express, Kamune combines elements of Google Docs, Basecamp, Huddle.net and Microsoft's Sharepoint. But Abburi, who spent 16 years at Microsoft, says while Kamune shares some of the core ideas of messaging, communication and collaboration it is far different.

"With Kamune, we provide a hybrid system, where the features themselves aren't so unique," he says. "It is how they come together that minimizes interruptions and provides a smooth work flow as you go from room to room."

The "room" is where all information gets stored. This is the work space where people share ideas, upload documents and chat with others. You can even ring a door bell to announce your arrival in the room -- as Aburri happened to do this evening as I was playing around with the system.

That  prompted an online chat, which led to further insight about the business.

The main idea behind Kamune is to create a tool that helps people deal with information overload, allowing them to manage projects in a more efficient manner. For example, Aburri said a mortgage lender in the Chicago area has been setting up individual rooms for each of his clients.

In a complex task that takes place over days or weeks, he said it helps to have the information in one place. Try that in email, which Aburri says just doesn't get the job done when it comes to collaboration.

"Email is not conducive to shared context for everyone in the team, puts the burden for organizing on the receiver, not the sender and frequently interrupts people," he explained.

In my own example, I was able to start a discussion with Aburri for this story late last week, asking questions as I went along. That solved the problem of trying to dig through dozens of emails to locate the specific information I needed. Other companies are trying to help people deal with information overload such as Xobni and Gist, but they are primarily focused on managing email.

"Trying to improve email from within will cure the symptoms but won't address the root problems," said Aburri. "Kamune isn't designed to replace any of the above products. It is designed to be added to the mix, so group work can be offloaded from email to Kamune."

Operating under the name Navaraga, the company is just rolling out the beta version of the service on Google App Engine. It has about 10 employees split between Bellevue and India

Kamune plans to make money through a premium offering, charging customers to set up multiple "rooms" with larger amounts of storage.

A free basic membership includes five rooms and 25 MB per user of storage. Premium subscriptions will cost about $10 per user per month, with 25 rooms and 100 MB of storage, he said.