DEPARTMENT
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A Spam Solution?
I liked Dick Kaser's observations about the ineffectiveness of the Can Spam
Act in your "Green Eggs and Spam" piece [May 2004].
The legal approach won't cut it by itself. Why not reroute SMTP e-mail traffic
across the popular real-time networks? Consider the advantages:
Networks are authenticated. (It's going to take years for SMTP
to get authentication.)
The infrastructure is in place (more than 300 million users
at last count).
It carries e-mail, SMS, and desktop alerts traffic (multiple
devices).
One-hundred-percent opt-in-only communicationand customers
control opt-in/out (not companies).
Customers are registered with networksnot companiesand
therefore the delivery information remains anonymous (no chance for abuse).
Networks are private (for example, MSN, AOL, Yahoo!) and therefore
centrally monitored (another layer of spam protection).
"Presence" detection means finding a customer on the networkand
optimally delivering information as customer requests.
All in all, real-time networks are spam-proof and have 10-times better delivery
performance. It's a real win-win for everyone.
Royal P. Farros
CEO and Chairman
MessageCast, Inc.
Got something on your mind? Disagree with anything you've read lately?
Send your Letters to the Editor to jeichorn@infotoday.com.
|