AC> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:18:40 +0800 AC> From: Adrian Chadd AC> There already has been a paradigm shift. University students AC> ("college" for you 'merkins) use facebook, myspace (less now, AC> thankfully!) and IMs as their primary online communication method. IOW: "Must establish trust OOB before communication is allowed." Deny-by-default is not a panacea, to be sure. Accept-by-default? Seemingly the greater of the evils. Providers and end-users alike both are using ad-hoc methods to deal with spam as best they can. United we stand, divided we fall, yadda yadda. Here's a thought: Google has massive resources. Their searches deal extensively with graph theory, traversal, et cetera. Is it any wonder that they launched Orkut? And why Gmail required an "invite" for so long? Ever consider that a Gmail username found reading a Blogspot blog might be considered a sign of similar interest, perhaps even trust? It takes neither a rocket scientist nor a conspiracy theorist to conclude that Google is working on the "trust network" problem internally. Others probably are as well; I merely chose a high-profile example. I'll say it again: Providers would be well-served to create _some_ form of trust metric and data exchange. If anyone is interested in cooperating with data formats, source code, other efforts, kooky ideas, or insults, please ping me off-list. It might not lead to anything useful or of critical mass, but it has a better chance than endless regurgitation of (S^2)(D^2) on NANOG-L. Eddy -- Everquick Internet - http://www.everquick.net/ A division of Brotsman & Dreger, Inc. - http://www.brotsman.com/ Bandwidth, consulting, e-commerce, hosting, and network building Phone: +1 785 865 5885 Lawrence and [inter]national Phone: +1 316 794 8922 Wichita ________________________________________________________________________ DO NOT send mail to the following addresses: davidc@brics.com -*- jfconmaapaq@intc.net -*- sam@everquick.net Sending mail to spambait addresses is a great way to get blocked. Ditto for broken OOO autoresponders and foolish AV software backscatter.