Let an agent explain email and how it works, relay standards, security and etiquette, describe variants such as certified email and threats such as spam and phishing in general terms, and distinguish email from messaging apps and postal mail.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Understand How email works.
Definition
Definition and mechanics.
Definition
Definition.
- What is email, and how do addresses, servers, protocols and clients work together? definition
- Is the question about email, instant messaging or another channel? boundary
Variants
Variants.
Variants
Variants.
- What are certified email, institutional email and mailing lists? definition
- Which entry fits the specific variant? action
Secure Security.
Threats
Threats.
Threats
Threats.
- What are spam, phishing and malicious email, and how can people recognise them, in general terms? provenance
- Is the user seeking to send deceptive or bulk unsolicited email, which the model refuses? boundary
Protection
Protection.
Protection
Protection.
- How do SPF, DKIM, DMARC, encryption and filtering protect email? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
Use Use and etiquette.
Etiquette
Etiquette.
Etiquette
Etiquette.
- What conventions govern professional email writing and management? provenance
- Which entry fits business communication? action
Law
Law.
Law
Law.
- What laws govern marketing email, retention and legal status of email, in general terms? provenance
- Which sources are cited? provenance
Context History and future.
History
History.
History
History.
- How did email develop from ARPANET to webmail? provenance
- Which entry fits the history of the internet? action
Future
Trends.
Future
Future.
- How are messaging apps, AI filtering and new standards changing email, as reported? provenance
- Which entry fits instant messaging? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.MED
- Other names and narrower kinds
- malicious e-mail, edu email, Decome, email type, email spam, certified email, Port.ru, HTML email, TTMail, password notification email, video email, malspam
What it is Filled
A method of exchanging messages between people using electronic devices over networks, defined by standards such as SMTP, IMAP and MIME, in which messages with headers, body and attachments are sent to addresses and stored in mailboxes, and including variants such as certified email with legal proof of delivery, institutional addresses such as educational email, and abuses such as spam and malicious email used for phishing; email remains the main formal digital correspondence channel and a major security attack vector.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent explain email and how it works, relay standards, security and etiquette, describe variants such as certified email and threats such as spam and phishing in general terms, and distinguish email from messaging apps and postal mail.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Open standards
- Asynchronous
- Address-based
- Security challenges
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Send email on a person's behalf without their approval.
- Read, forward or disclose another person's email without authority.
- Write phishing messages or spoof sender addresses.
- Send bulk email to people who have not agreed to receive it.
Only with a human decision
- Sending any message that commits the account holder.
- Deleting mail permanently or changing forwarding rules.
May
- Draft, sort, filter and summarize email for the account holder who authorized it.
- Flag likely phishing and spam.
Moral aspects Filled
- Email holds private correspondence and is a main route for fraud.
- Unwanted bulk email wastes people's time and spreads scams.
Who is affected
- Account holders
- Correspondents
- Recipients of spam and phishing
Owners Filled
Steward
The account holder; the mail provider runs the service.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q1076968 - registry parent class
- Q120266668 - registry parent class
- Q133492 - registry parent class
- Q1668024 - registry parent class
- Q2554719 - registry parent class
related
- telecommunications application - in registry terms
- digital media - in registry terms
- letter - in registry terms, as electronic correspondence
- SMTP - and related standards
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.email
- Wikidata: Q9158 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9158)
- RFC 5321: SMTP
- RFC 5322: Internet Message Format
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- emails sent per day: over 300 billion count - industry estimates
- share that is spam: about 45 percent - estimates vary
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Store-and-forward electronic messaging
- SMTP, IMAP, webmail, certified email, spam, phishing
- Instant messaging is real-time chat; postal mail is physical; fax transmits documents
- Not a physical object; messages in an inbox with sender, subject and body.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain how email works
- relay standards and security
- describe variants and threats
- distinguish from messaging
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Phishing and malware
- Spam
- Spoofing and lack of encryption by default
- Agents assisting malicious email
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- IETF email standards including SMTP, IMAP, MIME, SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Anti-spam laws such as CAN-SPAM and the EU ePrivacy rules
- Data protection and retention rules
- Legal frameworks for certified email such as Italian PEC
Context of use required Filled
- Exchanging messages electronically.
- personal and business email
- webmail and client-based email
- institutional email such as educational addresses
- certified and registered email systems
- email spam
- malicious email such as phishing and malware delivery
- mailing lists and newsletters
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q9158: email - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Email - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should email spam and phishing be separate primary entries?
- How should standards be linked?
- The registry entry has merged aliases naming variants and abuses; should they be split off?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q9158/spec.json