Markdown Version | Session Recording
Session Date/Time: 06 Nov 2023 14:30
# sml
## Summary
The first meeting of the sml working group focused on structured email, including use cases, open issues, and security considerations. Presentations covered example use cases (vacation notices), a general use case document, the core framework for structured mail representation, marking and hiding structured mail content, and trust/security implications. Several documents were discussed, and adoption calls were initiated for some, with final decisions deferred to the mailing list. The meeting also announced a search for co-chairs.
## Key Discussion Points
* **Vacation Notices Use Case:** Discussion revolved around the utility of standardizing vacation notices, privacy implications, and whether the recipient MUA should have automated actions or just better UI. Concerns were raised about end-user expectation of consuming the whole message and diverging from other potential use-cases that have an obvious automatable function. Alternative approaches were discussed such as incorporating the content into the user's calendar.
* **General Use Cases Document:** Covered existing, sharing, transactional, and email-specific use cases. Feedback emphasized minimizing unnecessary interactions and improving the quality of interactions, particularly concerning automated email notifications. A poll was conducted regarding adoption readiness.
* **Structured Data Representation:** Focused on RDF as the formal language. Discussion revolved around JSON-LD vs. microdata, with arguments for and against each. Concerns about JavaScript filtering by mail servers and the complexity of microdata generation were raised. Narrowing the scope of vocabularies to encourage interoperability was advocated.
* **Partial vs. Full Representation:** Explored the distinction between structured email as a partial representation of human-readable content vs. a full, alternative representation. The challenges of backwards compatibility, associating structured information with displayed content, and handling attachments were discussed.
* **Marking Structured Content:** Discussed mechanisms for marking structured content, including embedded content, and whether it should be hidden from the user. Need for requirements and use-cases.
* **Trust and Security:** Covered privacy concerns related to PII, the need for sender authentication, potential divergence between structured and human-readable data, and automated processing. Discussion of appropriate security measures such as not using DKIM for things needing higher trust. Discussion on level of trust required for different use cases.
## Decisions and Action Items
* **Vacation Notices Use Case:** No immediate decisions. Feedback to be considered on the mailing list.
* **General Use Cases Document:** Adoption call initiated; final decision on adoption deferred to the mailing list. The working group will solicit co-authors.
* **Structured Data Representation:** No decision made regarding preferred data representation formats. More discussion needed on the mailing list.
* **Trust and Security:** Adoption call initiated; final decision deferred to the mailing list.
* **Co-chair Search:** Open call for co-chair nominations for the sml working group, with Alexei stepping down in March.
## Next Steps
* Continue discussion of open issues and adoption readiness on the mailing list.
* Plan for an interim meeting in early 2024.
* Evaluate potential co-chairs.
* Release reference implementation of the core framework for structured mail.