State of the state: In response to an outcry from customers buckling under the crush from spam, makers of e-mail client and server software are struggling to add antispam capabilities that give end users and administrators of e-mail servers more granular control over filtering. However, competing on antispam features rather than cooperating on the development of interoperable antispam protocols is short sighted. Spammers have routinely found ways to circumvent the filtering utilities. Also, a lack of coordination with filtering at the ISP level means that these end-user-based utilities don't even get the chance to act on some e-mail, thus revealing one of the problems with the highly fractured approach that the Internet community is taking towards spam.

			JamSpam Report Card, May 2003 E-mail Software Providers Grade D-  See Legend All of the leading e-mail client and server providers have attended the JamSpam meetings and have worked together to present a detailed explanation of the challenges that they, and their customers, face. But, whereas the leading ISPs have started to organize among themselves, no such coagulation has taken place within this community. Honorable Mentions: Oracle senior product marketing director Rob Koplowitz, IBM Domino Messaging project leader Mike Gagnon, and then, representing Novell, Richard Bliss, all of whom have volunteered to contribute to the constitution framing process for JamSpam. Also, bulk-e-mail technology provider IronPort Systems for trying to bring the ISPs and High-Volume Senders together around an initiative called Bonded Sender.

Furthermore, until some standards exist that pave the way for competition on implementation of those standards, the use of antispam prowess as a means to gain competitive advantage (which each of the solutions providers is doing) goes against the basic principles of JamSpam. They're putting commercial interests ahead of the greater interests of the entire Internet community.

Report card: Although the leading providers in this category attended the JamSpam meetings, their message echoes that coming from the ISP and antispam utility providers: "We're building better antispam tools into our products than the next guy." Yes, it's good that these companies are helping their customers to deal with the deluge of spam. On the other hand, because of the inaccuracy of these tools and the lack of coordination with other communities, such efforts have no chance of producing an effective, long-term remedy for the Internet community.

Grade: D- All of the leading e-mail client and server providers have attended the JamSpam meetings and have worked together to present a detailed explanation of the challenges that they, and their customers, face. But, whereas the leading ISPs have started to organize among themselves, no such coagulation has taken place within this community.

Honorable mentions: Rob Koplowitz, Oracle senior product marketing director; Mike Gagnon, IBM Domino Messaging project leader; and Richard Bliss, representing Novell volunteered to contribute to the constitution-framing process for JamSpam. Also, bulk-e-mail technology provider IronPort Systems attempted to bring the ISPs and high-volume senders together around an initiative called Bonded Sender. The effort is to be commended, but recipients who want 100 percent of their e-mail delivered to them should be reminded that one underlying tenant of the Bonded Sender program resembles blacklists: the public votes on what is and what is not spam.

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