[REBOL] Re: Why I Blast Email
From: pwoodward::cncdsl::com at: 11-Jul-2003 15:07
Carl -
I agree, email definitely has it's problems. Every couple of weeks I add a
few new keywords to my email filters to keep my in-box from getting too
swamped to work with. However, any solution to the problems with email will
have to match it's core strengths:
1> Ubiquity. It cannot be understated. To many people Internet == email.
2> UI Metaphore. On a broad scale people are familiar with email programs.
You've hit the nail on the head when you say it's not terribly good for
threaded discussion, or even secure communications. It also, perhaps due to
it's ubiquity, makes it a great target for spam. I don't really have too
much of a problem with rich email (HTML, images, etc), as one frequently
must balance usability with security.
I've been researching building an email proxy server - using both SMTP and
IMAP4 interfaces it would run locally, and Outlook (or any other email app)
could use it. However it's delivery mechanism would be managed via a P2P
network based on the JXTA protocol. It would be relatively easy to encrypt
everything that passes through it using PKI. Instead of automatically
sending email over the P2P network, it would first request the public key of
the recipient - that would then be used to exchange a session key which
would be used to send the message over the wire. By the time it hits your
in-box, it would have been encrypted and decrypted transparently. The proxy
would be the email store (IMAP4) - and eventually it'd be ideal to allow the
P2P synch of the proxy (say between your home system and work system -
keeping your folders in sync and your addressbook, etc).
It's going to take forever to get people off of email!
- Porter
