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In
The News
 Spam
ends with enhanced e-mail value
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By Thomas L. DiStefano III, PerfectWeb
Technologies Inc. March 7th, 2007
The biggest challenge for e-mail marketers is eliminating
spam. Those of us who create, produce and transmit e-mail
have an affirmative responsibility to solve this problem
and to eliminate the cloud hanging over our industry.
This is a job that requires proactive industry action,
not government intervention or regulation.
E-mail is a remarkable
tool and communications vehicle. Widely understood,
accepted and used, its inherent qualities have been
degraded by abuse and spam. In spite of can-spam laws
and extensive opt-in campaigns and practices, people
still don't trust e-mail because every day they are
bombarded with messages they don’t want and didn’t
ask for.
For e-mail marketing to
flourish, we have to be able to verify the sender, prove
that e-mail is desired and guarantee delivery to opt-in
recipients without the fear of identity theft or invasion
of privacy. To my way of thinking e-mail privacy is
a fundamental right.
The key to ending spam
is not a technical breakthrough in filtering or blocking
technology. The critical variable is a change in the
economics of spam to make it dramatically less profitable
by building and protecting the asset value of the e-mail
address.
There has been a lot of
discussion about the creation of a digital stamp or
a third party authentication system. The Black Penny
Project initiative, like proposals to regulate or tax
e-mail are driven by those with an interest in creating
then controlling a system that can be monetized rather
than by those who seek to give each individual e-mail
address its rightful asset value.
Building a trusted, private
worldwide e-mail system will require a concerted and
Herculean effort. Whoever takes on the task will need
to have the energy, resources, e-mail expertise, clout
and focus to sustain a high level of attention and effort
over several years to produce a safe, secure and universally
accessible protocol. History teaches us that only free
market competition and invention can yield the desired
result.
And while the financial
and intellectual capital costs of this paradigm shift
may eliminate many of the smaller e-mail providers and
increase the cost of e-mail marketing, the promise of
a trusted, spam-free, safe and secure system that guarantees
e-mail delivery to only those who request it is worth
every penny.
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