05/13/97 RMIUG Meeting Minutes - Email Publishing and Marketing

Alek Komarnitsky began the meeting at 7:00 and thanked MapQuest, http://www.mapquest.com, for sponsoring the meeting. Following the RMIUG tradition he queried the audience and found that 1/2 the audience was there for the first time, with the furthest away coming from Cheyenne. They were given a Net Ferret software door prize for traveling the farthest. Alek informed the group that the Unknown Spammer had failed to show up!

Alek opened the floor for announcements. One user announced a shareware program, QuickPad, available at http://www.kenandted.com. Another announced an email phone gateway at http://www.sentosystems.com.

Alek introduced Matthew Siedel who explained a recent situation related to spamming. Matthew explained that some unnamed spammer, mailing out for an eastern mortgage company, forged as the return address the domain name localhost.com, a machine managed by Matthew. The spammer sent out an estimated 25,000 emails, which caused Matthew's system to be inundated with approximately 7000 irate responses. Matthew has found the mortgage company to be unresponsive, claiming it was the work of an "outsourced" consultant. He also noted that the ISP involved never even responded. Matthew is now pursuing the matter through the Colorado state courts seeking relief against "deceitful business practices". Matthew noted that a quick scan of the thousands of responses showed there were from 10 to 15 which might have been construed as a positive response to the spam. Matthew's case is described at http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~seidl/lawsuit and http://www.amcity.com/denver/stories/051297/story2.html.

Alek next introduced the speakers for the main topic of the evening, "Email Publishing and Marketing: Boring old-timer or the Killer App of the Net?", Andrew Currie (currie@emailpub.com), Dan Murray (dmurray@merc.com) and Randy Cassingham (arcie@netcom.com).

Speaking first, Andrew Currie, President & CEO of Email Publishing Inc., explained that his new services is an Email Subscription Service. He emphasized that they are NOT spammers. They deliver email only to those people who have subscribed to a service, typically newsletters, magazine articles, newspaper articles and business members of web sites. He gave examples of sending an email edition of a print newsletter, sending "what's new information" or promoting spare capacity to the web site members. Andrew went into some details for "Information Week", which has a print circulation of about 350,000 subscribers. Andrew manages for them a email address list of about 75,000 subscribers and they send out an all text publication which includes advertising. He noted that the editors keep the stuff short and that he manages the email addresses separately, experiencing about 10% bounces. He noted that the publisher save money for postage, sees a new source of ad revenue, goes directly to the user's desktop and gets the advantages of "push" delivery without using proprietary software, ala PointCaste. Andrew advocated using HTML mail, where HTML is in the email message. This enables mail programs to launch web browsers and expand the graphic nature of the mail and deepen the content. Andrew emphasized that email publishing is not spam because the user expects the mail and that there is already a commercial relationship with the recipient. Addressing the emerging Push technologies like PointCaste, Andrew noted that the install base is still quite small, they exist as plug-ins or proprietary schemes. He explained there are current some 20 difference methods which will probably consolidate to 3 or 4 survivors, so a publisher must choose which and buy the associated server software. Email to Andrew is a more logical choice. It's based on long established standards, supported by multiple vendors, has a huge install base and the end users use their standard email programs.

Speaking next, Dan Murray, Product Manager at Mercury Mail, also emphasized that he is not a Spammer. He explained that Mercury Mail is one of the largest emailers on the net, but only to subscribers. Dan noted that the problem with a web site is the users must take an action to visit. You can't reach out from a web site, you can only sit and wait for someone to come. Email, on the other hand, originates from the publisher. Dan quoted a 4/96 IDC study stating that the email "footprint" is some 70 million users (noting a more recent number of 90 million users) compared to the published PointCaste Push footprint of around 1 million users. Dan drew an analogy, "How do you get your magazines? Do you Surf the racks? No! You subscribe." Explaining email benefits, Dan listed the information comes to the user at a low incremental cost. The user can customize it, it's not interrupt driven and it's easy to pass on as "word of mouth". Email has no storage problems like physical magazines and the search and retrieval can be easier. Dan listed a number of email publishing examples: HPCWire/WEBster, American Airlines NetSAAvers, Mercury Mail, Yoyodyne/GoldMail/HotMail/Juno, Guerrilla Marketing Online Weekly, Interactive Media Weekly Recap, and Anchordesk with Jesse Berst. Dan noted several possible revenue streams for email publishing: ads in the email, ads on the associated web site, merchandise on the site, paid subscriptions and potential for other business. He noted that most publishers run software like Majordomo, EmailPub, Lyris, and Lsoft. Dan ended by emphasizing that the Subscriptions MUST be voluntary. Also, it is important that once a user voluntarily subscribes, it should also be easy for them to get OFF the lists, if they desire. Dan gave a brief summary of Mercury Mail, http://www.merc.com as a free, personalized News and Information email service including News, Stocks, Weather, Sports, Skiing, Entertainment and Reminders. They currently mail 1.5 million email messages each day, with both HTML and Text and each subscriber getting a unique email.

The evening's final speaker was Randy Cassingham, author of the syndicated "This is True" column. He announced himself a strong anti- spammer. After giving a brief background (NASA JPL) he explained he wanted to be his own boss. He began "This is True (reg trade mark)" where he explained in his own words things which actually happened, most of a humorous or strange nature. Randy pointed out that "This is True" focused on delivering a consistent product with a high entertainment and information value. He uses email as the "push" technology, since it does not rely on a real-time connection nor require special software. "This is True" is on the web at http://www.thisistrue.com or via email at TrueInfo@thisistrue.com. Randy explained that his email based publishing business has grown with revenue potential from advertising inserts, paid subscriptions, newspaper syndication and compilations and book sales. Randy noted that is possible to make a living entirely off the Internet, but it does take work. Randy also gave an Anti-Spam update pointing out CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) at http://www.cauce.org. He also has anti-spam information available on his web page http://www.thisistrue.com, which is also available via email at NoSpam@mailback.com.

Alek invited the 3 panelists back up on the stage where they answered questions from the audience.

Is email aimed at old unix email formats ala VT100?

AC (Andrew Curry): Design for this, yes. Use monospace fonts, no tabs.
DM (Dan Murray): ASCII text only. Reference web sites with normal URLS.
RC (Randy Cassingham): For the widest audience go with straight text.

What is the solution to the email address change issue?

RC: Still a problem and will probably remain one for a while.
DM: "A total nightmare" - One of the biggest challenges in the email field today.
AC: Propriety software can help make email address management easier.

What is the potential for legal efforts to eliminate spam?

RC: State laws will probably be ineffective. Federal laws will be better, but are not perfect because spammers can just move offshore and continue. Updating the IP protocols to ensure validation of users and servers would be best.

What's the opinion on the next few months on push technology?

AC: Standardization on the push side could shake out some of the participants. Also digital signatures/certification is coming.

DM: Expect more richness in HTML mail. Alek: There is an RFC out on subscribe/unsubscribe mail headers.

Is there an all inclusive guide for email?

AC: No. We are on the email frontier now.

DM: Avoid any solutions that promise to be "flameproof". Books are either deep technical or shallow overviews, with nothing in the middle.

Wrapping up the evening's program, Alek Komarnitsky announced that Mitch Gerber was promoting an Internet happy hour (Internet Think and Drink) in Denver. There may also be an Internet happy hour in Boulder as well. Alek again thanked MapQuest for their support of the evening.

The meeting concluded at 9:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Art Smoot.