Philip Raymond,
Interim Chairperson
July 11, 2005

1.  Purpose & Participants

The group was created as an IP "rights consensus". That is, to internally arbitrate and externally promote the intellectual property owned by the participants described in the indented paragraph below. Depending upon the consensus of members after the first few meetings, the group may also pursue a common reference specification (including test tools and interoperability certification).

Some of the individuals and organizations described below have already assigned or attempted to license their individual mechanisms to interested parties. But prospective licensees have raised the question of potentially overlapping claims or the desire to be indemnified from a collective of inventors in the same field. Hence, the formation of this collective.

Membership applications are welcome from the following individuals, with a membership decision at the discretion of current members:

An Individual or organization that has a financial stake in the licensing of micropayment mechanisms or "at-risk" guarantees for electronic messaging of any kind. The scheme is proposed or employed for the purpose of arbitrating unsolicited contact. For example, as an anti-spam mechanism or as an "assured message" delivery system.

A more detailed statement of purpose is linked to our home page at www.senderatrisk.org (Purpose and FAQ)

2.  Registration Drive

Our first invitation was sent to individuals and assignees who have published "prior art" or have described related mechanisms - even if no rights are claimed.

If you have not yet registered, please do so promptly. A registration form is here.

Please refer anyone who meets the standards of the indented paragraph above. Think broadly. For example, as of later this week, our invitation list will include Van Zandt, Dwork/Naor (CPU cycles), Nalebuff/Ayres (Reverse 900 numbers), Krishnamurthy (Internet Measurement, Shred, etc), Ironport/Return Path (Bonded Sender), Landesmann (Buyer Leverage), etc.

You may direct referred individuals to the FAQ and invitation linked to our home page (www.senderatrisk.org), but do not extend invitations on behalf of the group, unless authority has been delegated to you by Marshall or me.

3.  Purpose of 1st Meeting;  Protocol

We recognize that these two questions are on everyone's mind. The first meeting will be held on Sunday Sept 11 at 11AM EDT at MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts.

      a)  Meeting Purpose

Attendance at the first meeting is not intended to result in the surrender rights or the proprietary interests of any participant. Rather, the first meeting has a specific purpose:

Disclose and share the information that will help us to later arbitrate relative IP merits and value and/or to influence other participants to offer their proprietary mechanism in new ways

Each inventor or adherent will articulate and promote their ultimate vision of the messaging payment mechanism and/or unsolicited introduction mechanism that they believe represents the ultimate end-game of anti-spam or of "delivery legitimization". They will also describe their economic interest or any intangible interests in the process and make a brief statement about any related works of which they are aware - whether open or proprietary. Each participant - including staff members of Vanquish (the initial sponsor) - will put "all cards on the table". You and those that you refer should carefully consider this prerequisite, and ensure that you are in a position to do so by September 11. That means that the rights assignee, if applicable, must feel comfortable with advance legal protections.

      b) Meeting Protocol

Current participants are just beginning to propose guidelines for procedure and protocol. During 2005, it is not expected that we will have participation of more than 20 individuals at a single meeting; possibly a lot fewer in live attendance. Unless superseded by a 2/3 vote of members, meetings of fewer than 20 individuals will be conducted in the format preferred by the rotating co-chairs (currently me and Marshall Van Alstyne).

For the first meeting, we plan the following format. The meeting will probably be more informal than these guidelines make it appear:

• Chair-moderated sequence of stand-in-place speakers (all participants will present)
• Presentation time based on submission of 2 page summary by speaker - but with
  available waivers and additional discretion during presentation
• Summaries circulate to outside panel. NDAs may be requested -but must expire Sept 11
• Speakers focused on deterrence and deliverability present before payment mechanisms,
  with the sequence otherwise randomized

4.  Important Dates

ASAP	Confirm your attendance. Register now. Nominate other parties with an IP stake in these discussions
Fri, Aug 5	Last day for free registration. Thereafter: $350
Fri, Aug 19	Submit 2 page summary of presentation (PDF or PowerPoint). Outline your IP and vision of end-to-end accountability or payment mechanism. Plan to speak for 35 minutes . WXGA projector will be available.
Sun, Sep 11	11AM Meeting at MIT. Directions will be mailed to all registrants.
---	Minutes of the meeting will be published here.

5.  First Action: New Name Adopted

Bowing to nearly unanimous opinion, our group is adopting a new name effective August 1st...

a)  Group Name:
    Accountability Initiative      [AI]         (Peter Greer)
    (this variant drops the word "Email" from Peter's suggestion)

b)  Name of Reference Spec (or technology):
    Message Verification Platform  [MVP]  (Joyce Van Alstyne)

Early participants debated this list of names proposed by our members, and advisors (listed by proponent). I came up with the original name, "Sender At Risk Working Group", but accepted the need to adopt a broader and less threatening name, which was echoed by all early members. We received lots of advice, including extensive consulting from a G2PR, (a public relations firm made available by Vanquish Labs), our outside advisors, and even a business naming specialist who was personally funded by investor Stephen Roberts.

Some of you lobbied strenuously for a specific name. Being co-chairperson is not easy and your chairman does not claim to be a diplomat. A final decision was made by Phil Raymond and Marshall Van Alstyne. We will take the heat. The selection of a new name was based on likely public perception and other market considerations: Message "punch", easily remembered acronym, internet domain availability, and our need to accurately reflect the interests of both senders and recipient (which we believe will ultimately be aligned). We looked for a name that was not restricted to email or schemes of risk/deposit - but one that retains the concept of respect or accountability. We felt that names, with the words "trust", "integrity", or "truth" raise the specter of community registrations services, rules and judges. Likewise, the words "content", "clear", and "clean" imply filters and (possibly) a lack of personal/individual control.

6.  Sponsorship

The group has not yet solicited any organization to sponsor its activities. In the future, we will seek sponsorship from licensees and/or commercial senders who lose legitimate mailings to spam filters. The impact of intercepting messages that would have been deemed desirable by recipients is just as acute and costly as spam is to the recipient. These senders accept that a good solution to their deliverability crisis holds each sender accountable for respecting the sender's preferences. They think of their payment or bond as a personal guaranty rather than a "risk". Eventually, some recipients may even think of the payment as a "reward" rather than a "penalty".

Currently, costs are underwritten by Vanquish Inc of Massachusetts. These costs includ web site development, a part time research assistant, two outside marketing/PR consultants. An unaudited log is maintained by the company's treasurer, and is available to any member.

After the first meeting (and earlier if approached), the group will seek sponsorship by other organizations, including but not limited to prospective licensees. This may include telecomm companies, software vendors, senders of commercial messaging, suppliers of network infrastructure equipment, and other industry/trade organizations.