Subject: [Asrg] Should email have semantics?

From: "Mark Delany" <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Mar 2003 16:39:16 +0000

We pretty much use email as a form of universal transport. While there
are mechanisms to express the type of content (such as MIME) no
formal mechanisms exist to express actions or consent that are
embedded in the email exchanges. As a consequence, we have an
unimaginable menagerie of ad hoc expressions of actions and consent.

Let me give a concrete example: subscribing to a mailing list.

Clearly the exchange between the list manager and the subscriber is a
series of actions (please add me to the list, please remove me from
the list), confirmations and implicit consent (yes you can now send
email to the list and I will forward it to subscribers, yes you can
now send list mail to my subscription address).

This is an extremely common process, yet we have no formal or
consistent methods for expressing these exchanges. Sure, we've
invented a few de facto standards that sort-of do the job, but the
they are not universally followed - especially when it comes to
unsubscribing. In any event, these standards are not part of the email
"system" per se, they are functionality we've layered on top of email.

It might be argued that if a subscription mechanism were part of the
email "system" we could have completely avoid the "super-duper triple
opt-in" mess we now have.

On a different tangent, a role email address such as postmaster@ could
easily be construed to exist solely for the purpose of discussing
problems with email at a certain domain. Similarly sales@ could be
construed to exist solely for the purpose of requesting information
about certain products. Conflictingly, joe-tmda-3mar2003@ expresses
semantics that the recipient knows about, but the sender
doesn't. Again, the email "system" in general has no knowledge about
when these email addresses should be used and what should be sent to
them.

I'll give one last case of extremely common semantic confusion. When
you supply your email address as part of a submission to, eg, this
email list. What are you expressing? Are you expressing authorship,
are you requesting a copy of all replies? Are you granting permission
to people to contact you off-list so long as it's within context?

It seems to me that much of the challenge for moving forward with
email - in particular spam - might be more tractable by deciding once
and for all whether email is a transport layer or an application
layer. After all, isn't it the schizophrenic nature of email that
leaves us grappling with conflicting heuristics and requirements?

Regards.
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