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

> Let me add a little to the requirements list and agree with Nathan 
> that that is where we should start. Some requirements that do not seem 
> to be met all that well at present

okay, pet peeve.  none of these is a "requirement".   requirements are 
goals that are so fundamental that failure to meet the goal causes the 
whole effort to fail.

it's way too early to try to nail down requirements.

> The capacity to determine that the sender is a valid address for 
> sending email at the site involved
> The capacity to determine that the "From" field actually indicates who 
> the message is from
> The capacity to authenticate the sender.

I am not even sure that these are reasonable goals as stated.

> The purpose of these suggestions is to take measures which will make 
> it more difficult to send spam mail of the Viagra type or to circulate 
> worms and viruses of many types.

Then say that the goals are to make it more difficult to send spam, 
worms, and viruses.  I think we can all agree on that.  Don't 
overconstrain the solution by assuming that the problem must be solved 
in such-and-such a way.

sorry to single you out - but we have to back away from assumptions 
about solutions in order to really understand the problems.

Keith