[LINK] Govt struggling with spam: Alston

[Rik Harris]

On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 03:05:33PM +1100, Bob.Smart@csiro.au wrote:
> > Govt struggling with spam: Alston
> > The federal government has issued its strongest indication yet it is 
> > unlikely to undertake decisive measures to combat the welter of spam 
> > plaguing Australia's e-mail inboxes.
> 
> Another useful thing that governments could do is create
> long term e-mail addresses for citizens. E.g. the Vic
> government could let users create username@id.vic.au.
> It would want to be integrated with an anti-spam system.
> However it should perhaps not have its own mail client
> and mail storage: mail would have to be forwarded 
> elsewhere to a nominated and presumably secret e-mail 
> mailbox. The id.vic.au e-mail addresses would have a
> long term future that only government can guarantee.

This doesn't sound sensible to me.

1.  There are (high) tens of thousands of people moving both into and out
    of Victoria each year.  Do you keep your .vic.au address once you move
    to QLD?  Do you need an address for each of the states you have lived in?

2.  Victoria has around 4.5 million people and Australia is edging
    towards 20 million, although obviously they won't all have email.
    ABS says 6.9 million Australian adults access the Internet in 2000.

3.  The quality of service would need to be at least the level that the
    premium ISPs provide.  It takes a lot to create the infrastructure
    to support that.  Just ask the major ISPs.

How much would it cost to put an intervening mail service between
these users that would supply the level of service expected?

How would you manage the adds, deletes, changes (if self-service,
add the word "securely" in there somewhere)?

If it's not universal, then why is it any better than id.au?

Why would we create a single place where a government can watch our
mail go by?

Why would we create a single place that could be attacked to kill email?

What is the VALUE such a service would provide?  What return would a
government get for investing millions in infrastructure?

rik.