[ih] Siloed Email (was: Re: Better-than-Best Effort)

[Dave Crocker]

On 8/27/2021 10:50 AM, Jack Haverty wrote:
> Email has a long history of silo-izing.    I wonder if that occurred 
> partly because we never proceeded very aggressively beyond the "simple" 
> functionality of SMTP, and silos evolved to satisfy unmet needs.  So, 

As you well know, SMTP hasn't been simple for a long time.  It's grown 
enormously, even for just the transport mechanism.

The main complexity now comes from anti-abuse work, I think.  And the 
trouble there is that it's just plain difficult to run that capability. 
  So, I think, siloing comes from operational skill.

The other issue, of course, is free vs. paid email and people tend to 
opt for the former, rather than the latter, for some odd reasons.


> for example, I have several "email accounts" provided by medical groups, 
> financial groups, etc., that require me to visit their silo to read/send 

That, of course, is because we have yet to figure out how to do good 
quality privacy/security, especially distributed and at scale.  And note 
I didn't say that as an email issue.


> mail with them.   Sometimes they send me regular SMTP email to let me 
> know that I should log in to seen my new mail.

That's email as a notification, rather than transaction service. 
Different sec/priv isues.


> Curiously, there is some technology in the SMTP-email world to address 
> such needs.   My email app (Thunderbird) has the ability to sign and/or 
> encrypt my email, using apparently well-publicized standards.

This has been a long-standing example of the difference between an 
existence proof vs. working adequately at scale.


d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net