[atlarge-discuss] Anti-Spam Research Group

[DannyYounger@cs.com]

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57868,00.html

Like Greek gods high atop Mount Olympus, the masters of the Internet have 
long been watching the spam wars. But this week they decided to step in and 
settle the fight -- once and for all. 

The Internet Research Task Force, the closest thing the Internet has to a 
governing body for all matters technical, inaugurated the Anti-Spam Research 
Group this week to develop "a taxonomy of the (spam) problem and the proposed 
solutions." 

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of mailing lists, message boards and 
anti-spam organizations already fighting junk e-mail, but experts say the new 
research group is uniquely positioned to effect real change on a large scale. 

Chaired by Paul Judge, director of research and development at CipherTrust, 
an Internet security firm, the ASRG will seek to establish a more systematic, 
research-based framework for collaboration among those fighting spam. 

"A lot of tech companies sit in their corner of the world and develop 
something to help with the spam problem. This has resulted in a lot of 
localized symptom relievers," said Judge. 

"This is good and necessary. But they, overall, haven't worked on a real cure 
for the spam problem." 

The first step toward the cure, according to Judge, will be crafting a widely 
acceptable definition for spam -- a tricky undertaking, as one user's junk 
mail can be another's cherished employment opportunity. 

The ASRG will solve this problem, according to its charter, by generalizing 
the problem into "consent-based communication" whereby "an individual or 
organization should be able to express consent or lack of consent for certain 
communication and have the architecture support those desires." 

Beyond the difficulty of deciding what is and what isn't spam, figuring out 
exactly what this "architecture" will look like will be at the heart of the 
research group's challenge. 

It will also give its members a singular opportunity to define the future of 
e-mail. 

Because of its close ties to the Internet Research Task Force and the 
Internet Engineering Task Force, organizations whose influence extends to the 
realm of politicians and regulators, the ASRG has the power to crystallize 
the efforts of the anti-spam movement. 

IRTF chairman Vern Paxson said his group's sponsorship confers on the ASRG 
the respect of a community of "fairly high-powered researchers." 

Andrew Barrett of the SpamCon Foundation agreed. "IETF has a certain cachet. 
The best brains tend to aggregate there." 

But other anti-spammers aren't so sure that the IETF's involvement guarantees 
progress in the fight against spam. 

"When I started to read (the charter), I expected it to be pretty useless," 
Paul Graham, a prominent anti-spammer, wrote in an e-mail. 

"But when I saw Paul Judge was chairman, that made me more hopeful. It's hard 
to imagine what effect an IETF committee could have on spam, but if Paul 
Judge is in charge they may achieve something." 

Jason Catlett of Junkbusters, an Internet privacy advocate, said the new 
research body has potential. 

"There are many areas where the IETF could do a lot of good abating spam. One 
example is a technical standard for SMTP banners: the electronic equivalent 
of a No Junk E-Mail sign." 

Catlett also expressed hope that the new task force could marshal legal clout 
for the spam fight. 

"There are huge economic and social benefits to be gained by intelligently 
coordinating computer codes and the legal code. Far too often they fit 
together like a wrench and a banana." 

Although the ASRG's charter says it will not specifically pursue research 
into legal issues of spam, Judge said he believes technical and legal 
solutions must work hand in hand. 

The research group will officially convene for the first time at the IETF's 
March meeting in San Francisco. 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: atlarge-discuss-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: atlarge-discuss-help@lists.fitug.de