New mail-ng mailing list open for sign-ups

[Paul Hoffman / IMC]

Greetings again. There seems to be more discussion these days about 
replacing SMTP and/or RFC 2822 and/or POP/IMAP for a variety of 
reasons. The discussion seems to pop up on a few different lists and 
in a few different hallways, and it might be good to have a single 
list where folks can congregate. Thus, I have set up a mail-ng 
mailing list.

The first task probably is to determine what the next generation of 
mail should do, and how that is different than what 
SMTP/2822/POP-or-IMAP or instant messaging does. It is safe to say 
that we can ignore actual protocol proposals for many months (if not 
years) until we figure out what is needed. Once we do that, there are 
plenty of protocol people who can attack the decided-on requirements.

There is no expectation that there will be significant agreement on 
the list. It is likely that over time the discussion will split into 
camps of like-minded design goals. The list might then spawn 
different lists for the folks of the different camps (mail-ng-shoe, 
mail-ng-sandal, ...). The list is explicitly not yet meant to be an 
IETF working group yet (if at all), and is probably more akin to the 
IRTF. But at the beginning, it will most likely be talking, not 
research.

See  for information on how to 
subscribe. The list is taking subscriptions now, and will probably go 
live for discussions within a week. Having some discussion on a 
mailing list now should make the dinners and bar gatherings at Seoul 
more interesting.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium

New mail-ng mailing list open for sign-ups

[Paul Hoffman / IMC]

Greetings again. There seems to be more discussion these days about 
replacing SMTP and/or RFC 2822 and/or POP/IMAP for a variety of 
reasons. The discussion seems to pop up on a few different lists and 
in a few different hallways, and it might be good to have a single 
list where folks can congregate. Thus, I have set up a mail-ng 
mailing list.

The first task probably is to determine what the next generation of 
mail should do, and how that is different than what 
SMTP/2822/POP-or-IMAP or instant messaging does. It is safe to say 
that we can ignore actual protocol proposals for many months (if not 
years) until we figure out what is needed. Once we do that, there are 
plenty of protocol people who can attack the decided-on requirements.

There is no expectation that there will be significant agreement on 
the list. It is likely that over time the discussion will split into 
camps of like-minded design goals. The list might then spawn 
different lists for the folks of the different camps (mail-ng-shoe, 
mail-ng-sandal, ...). The list is explicitly not yet meant to be an 
IETF working group yet (if at all), and is probably more akin to the 
IRTF. But at the beginning, it will most likely be talking, not 
research.

See  for information on how to 
subscribe. The list is taking subscriptions now, and will probably go 
live for discussions within a week. Having some discussion on a 
mailing list now should make the dinners and bar gatherings at Seoul 
more interesting.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium