Kevin Werbach's "Death by Spam" has been the talk of the net lately. Werbach predicts the end of email as we know it (pervasive, flexible, universal connectivity) as the spam problem continues to worsen. Werbach concludes "Like it or not, the only way to kill spam is for an element of e-mail to die as well."
Jon Udell offers an intriguing thought (again) for fighting spam that Werbach does not cover. Instead of "whitelists", the equivalent of Instant Messaging buddy lists, Udell proposes that the use of digital identities could help filter email into two piles. Those who have asserted their identity go into one pile (mail you want to read) and those who have not go into another (mail you probably don't want to read). Digital certificates are better then whitelists in that they facilitate "trusted communication without prearrangement."
Every user suffers from and understands this plague. Blocking spam could finally incent the masses to use digital identities. There are other issues that need to be addressed. Udell goes on to point out that users still need to "jump through the hoops that now complicate the acquisition of a digital ID -- or to spur vendors to simplify that process. I've often wondered what it would take to get us over the activation threshold."
I wonder too. Personally I do not use a digital identity though I realize I should. It is a weak excuse, but I'm aware acquiring a digital ID is burdensome and simply haven't had the time or energy to take that on. I'm very reliant on email and I'm growing increasingly sick of spam. Perhaps it has come time to take this on and do my part to set an example.
