Previous | Table of Contents | Next |
E-mail systems offer a growing number of features which commonly include time and date stamp, the ability to read, write, reply, and archive messages, as well as to attach or append files (text, binary, audio, video and image). Features also can include encryption for additional security, receipt confirmation, filtering (prioritizing), automated response and automated forwarding. The ability to build customized distribution lists allows a user to send a single message to large numbers of user mailboxes with the click of a mouse.
While e-mail traditionally has been text-oriented, it is now often appended with binary, audio, video and image files. Because the process of doing so is cumbersome and server-specific, true unified messaging has not been achieved. Nonetheless, e-mail has become essential for the conduct of business. Indeed, it is virtually universal, having found its way into personal use through online information services, connected via the Internet and mail gateways, which serve as protocol converters [5-37].
Especially since the commercialization of the Internet, e-mail has become an indispensable tool in our professional and even in our personal lives. My daughter can attest to this fact, as she regularly sends e-mail requests for money from her college dormitory room. Future enhancements to, and issues surrounding, e-mail include unified messaging, remote access, and connectivity.
Unified messaging (Figure 5.6) extends across e-mail, voice mail, and fax technologies. E-mail messaging increasingly includes binary computer files, graphics files, image files, video files and even voice and audio files. While such attachments can be very bandwidth-intensive, they clearly enhance the effectiveness of the communication. As an admitted abuser of the Internet, I must confess to regularly sending multi-MB PowerPoint graphic files as e-mail attachments. While the ideal unified messaging system (providing a single mailbox for fax mail, e-mail, and voice mail) does not exist, the technology will develop to that point. More realistic is integrated messaging, which provides a single user interface in the form of a computer keyboard or telephone tonepad for accessing various mailboxes simultaneously in order to access multiple media on a coordinated basis [5-22], [5-38], and[5-39].
Figure 5.6 Unified messaging.
Remote access to e-mail also is increasingly popular. BIS estimates that over 10 million portable computers were in place in the United States. at the end of 1994 and that 4.6 million portables will be sold in 1995, an increase of 23% over 1994. Additionally, 5.1 million mobile professionals carry a laptop when they travel; two-thirds of those use that laptop for remote access to e-mail, even on a wireless basis [5-40].
Connectivity remains an issue, and likely will for some time. It is necessary that some minimum set of agreements be reached within the e-mail development community. Issues include commonality of header fields, end-to-end messaging services (priority transfer, confirmation notification, and security), addressing schemes, and management standards. For example, most LAN-based systems use SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) to pass e-mail to the Internet. Yet each SMTP gateway may deal with addressing schemes in a different way, causing conflicts during the process of message routing. Additionally, each e-mail system places different limitations on the size of file attachments. Finally, binary files typically get converted to text and then converted back to binary files on the receiving end, with the end result being a complete loss of formatting.
Junk mail plagues the e-mail community, just as it does the world of fax, voice mail, and regular mail. Advertisements, which once were considered a breach of e-mail etiquette, have become a fact of life on the Internet. Those of us who subscribe to technology magazines almost always are requested or even required to include our e-mail addresses in order that we can be deluged with junk mail from vendors. Perhaps the master of e-mail advertising is Promo Enterprises (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), which sends electronic classified ads to 300,000+ mailboxes three times a week [5-41].
Previous | Table of Contents | Next |