EMail 2000
by Janet Attard
Copyright 1996 by Janet Attard

Imagine that it's the year 2000. You walk into your office at 7:45 AM hoping to get a head start on what promises to be another busy day. You reach for the remote control and click the red button to turn on your email machine. The screen on the wall comes to life and the software's patented secretary-in-a-box comes on screen to read you a list of mail that's arrived overnight.

Among the items she notes in her slightly hollow voice is an order from a client, the RFP you've been waiting weeks for, an office supply catalog, a video message from your west-coast virtual partner, a PowerPoint presentation from J&J Sons Discount Business Furniture Outlet, and a 10-minute video extolling the virtues of vacationing in Peru.

Then there's the corporate visa bill for the month, an ad from the gym, and an old-fashioned text email message from your mother-in-law asking if you've got a job you could give cousin Johnnie because he was just laid off.

You flick off the email machine and turn to your computer, trying to remember when you first noticed that more of your business was done through email than through US Mail or on the telephone.

Far-fetched?

Not really.. Email is set to become a cornerstone of companies' Internet commerce systems, according to a "E-mail Shootout," recent report published by Forrester Research.

According to the report, within two years, email messages will include pictures, audio and Java applets, allowing database marketers to send colorful, individualized promotions to customers at the push of a button.

Furthermore, at least 30 percent of all corporate email traffic will be sent to customers and outside parties. Online transactions will generate two to five mail messages each, including order confirmations and shipment notifications. In addition, companies will increase their use of email to respond to customer inquiries about order status and product details.

That prediction probably brings joy to the hearts of database marketers and small businesses who see the Internet as the cheap alternative to bulk mail and traditional advertising. But it's just as likely to produce an entirely different emotion among businesses and consumers who already find they get far too much junk email.

And that begs the question: Is it time for legislators to start work on a law that would limit unsolicited email much the way companies are now restricted from sending unsolicited fax? After all the same principles are involved: hard costs, lost time, and interference with business (when so many junk email messages come through that real business mail is accidentally overlooked).

Do we need a law that would prevent companies from sending advertisements and other promotional mailings to anyone with whom they have not previously established a business relationship? A law that would put responsibility for compliance - and noncompliance - squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of those sending the unsolicited mail.?

And, should it be illegal to compile email lists for rental by gathering email addresses from postings in newsgroups and message boards?

Those are the questions Attard Communications asked in a survey of online subscribers and web users completed in early September, 1996. A large majority of the more than 700 individuals who took the survey do think there should be a law. Even those who don't want a law are fed up junk email. For additional details, read the article "Stop Junk Email."