Agenda

MailThink is a different kind of email workshop.

After 35 years of continuous growth and enhancement, Internet Mail could use some serious changes. MailThink will consider major challenges and improvements to Internet messaging that should be addressed over the next 10 years. Work will focus on making, developing, discussing and pursuing proposals for enhancement. Be prepared to think outside the inbox.

Attendance will be by invitation and limited to 50 people. Every attendee will be an active participant, with a point of view. Attendance is a commitment. Expertise is expected to include messaging design, development, marketing and operation, anti-abuse, social networking, group collaboration, community organizing, and more.

The specific content will be determined by the attendees, before the event. Every participant will be expected to join in extended discussions before the event. When the event occurs, we will already be a community.

Some problems and improvements can be achieved within 3-5 years, given sufficiently narrow focus and sufficiently strong motivation. Major changes will take 5-10 years. No matter the timeframe, all discussion will be based on pragmatics:

• What is the need?
  
• Who has it; do they know; do they care?
  
• What changes will produce fundamental benefit and why are we sure they will?
  
• Who is critical to making the change happen and what are their incentives?
  
• What are the barriers to adoption and how can they be overcome?
  

Topics could include:

• When messaging is part of collaboration, how can it do its part better?
  
• Is it realistic to integrate different styles of messaging (email, IM, voicemail) and what would be required?
  
• What are tolerable levels of messaging abuse and how do we get there and stay there, given the creativity of abusers?
  
• A message thread is a model and it can be treated as an interaction, a document, a task list, and so on. Can we build on these different views?
  
• Why isn't there a marketplace for email similar to search and display?
  
• Interaction involves trust. Do messaging trust models provide sufficient safety and flexibility? If not, what needs changing?
  

But nothing is out of bounds, as long as there is a need, a community desire, and a path for making it happen.

TENTATIVE AGENDA
subject to change

Wednesday, September 24th

7:00-9:00pm Cocktail Hour

Thursday, September 25th

8:00-8:30am Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:00am Welcome
9:00-10:15pm Fast Pitches 1
10:15-10:30am Break
10:30am-11:45 Fast Pitches 2
12:00-1:00pm Lunch
1:00-1:30pm Decide on 3 topics to explore in-depth
1:30-3:30pm In-Depth 1
3:30-3:45pm Break & Snack
3:45-5:45pm In-Depth 2
6:30-8:00pm Dinner

Friday, September 26th

9:00-11:45pm In-Depth 3
11:45-12:00pm Closing
12:00-1:00pm Lunch
1:30pm Off to the Austin City Limits Festival!