M3AAWG Boston

The tri-annual procession of Facebook friends and colleagues to a disclosed location to talk about messaging, abuse and prevention started over the weekend.  For me, this M³AAWG conference marks the beginning of a new chapter. We’re hiring, and even before the conference officially started I’ve had some productive conversations with people about what we’re looking for and how we see the company growing. M³AAWG is always a little like a reunion. I’ve been working with some of the people present for more than a dozen years, and some I’ve known for even longer. The conference is work, they mean the “working group” part of their name, but it’s also a time to create and maintain the community that keeps our online messaging from being overwhelmed. If you’re here, drop by and say hi (and don’t forget to visit my session on Thursday afternoon)! Otherwise, watch this space as I share what insights I can about the information presented.

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M3AAWG conference next week

Next week is M3AAWG 30 in San Francisco. We’ll be there and are very excited to see the familiar faces and meet new people.
I recently had someone ask me what would I recommend to someone going to their first M3AAWG conference. My recommendation to anyone in the sender or marketer space is to go to some of the talks that are not about email delivery. Go to the sessions that talk about malware or SMS or anything other than just email delivery. For anyone in the ISP space go to a session focused on mobile or email sending. Use this time to learn about something totally different than what you do every day.
Another question I get frequently from senders is if the people from the ISPs are open to sitting down and talking with senders about the senders’ email problems. Generally, the answer is no. Most of the time, the ISP has no knowledge of who you are and what mail you’re sending, so all they can say is “send me an email with the IPs and I’ll take a look at it.” That’s it.
We’ll be in the city starting Monday afternoon, and I always enjoy meeting readers. Stop by and introduce yourself.

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So much to write about

This was a great MAAWG conference and there are a couple sessions I can write about. There were multiple sessions where representatives from various blocking groups and ISPs talked about what they block on. I have extensive notes and will be writing things up in the next few days.
The awesome folks at Mailchimp brought t-shirts for us.

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The J.D. Falk award 2013

M3AAWG awarded the second J.D. Falk award today in Montreal. The winner was Gary Warner from the University of Alabama.
Gary has been involved in fighting abuse and online crime since the 1990s. He developed the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research at the University. This is an education program that not only teaches students about online threats and how to fight them, but collaborates with both industry experts and law enforcement.
You can check out Gary at his blog or on twitter.
 

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