Re: Why are we here? What are our goals?

Folks,

NB> it useful to start by compiling a wishlist,  as raw data for
NB> requirements abstraction and tradeoff analysis.  So I'd like to start a
NB> wish list of "plausible stuff it would be cool to include in email-ng."

NB> 	-- internationalization, esp. of addresses
NB> 	-- enhanced tracing mechanisms
NB> 	-- generalized challenge/response mechanisms
NB> 	-- transport-level authentication
NB> 	-- binary transport  (phasing out C-T-E's)
NB> 	-- Cleaner separation of header, envelope, and body
NB> 	-- structured local-part syntax
NB> 	-- economic mechanisms (postage, attention bonds)

Much of Nathaniel's list appears to be targeting unstated problems. In
some cases, the targeting might be right but the suggested solution is
only one of several.

So, here's the game I like to try playing, when faced with a technical
task and a technical group, for a human result:

State the issues in entirely non-technical terms.  What enhancements
do we seek, in terms that are visible and important to end-users and
to operators?  No reference to protocols or formats is permitted.
Talk only in terms of user interactions and operator actions.

For example, we want users to be able to exchange email in their
native language.  We want them to be able to have addresses that are
expressed in their native character sets.

Perhaps we want senders to be accountable, so that problems with their
posting can be traced back to them.  Or at least, we want _someone_ to
be accountable for the postings.  Or perhaps we want to provide a
means that takes note of senders who are willing to be accountable,
and correctly distinguishes them from senders who are not willing.

We want people to be able to exchange email with any type of content.
(Hmmm.  They already can do that.  So is the new requirement that we
want them to be able to do this with smaller messages?)

and so on.

Note that the requirement for binary format transport and
transport-level authentication are examples of possibly wrong or lower
priority goals.  We can only know that when we are clear what
user-level problems we are trying to solve and we agree that they are
significant.

d/
--
 Dave Crocker <dcrocker-at-brandenburg-dot-com>
 Brandenburg InternetWorking <www.brandenburg.com>
 Sunnyvale, CA  USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>