The First Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam

in fields as diverse as machine learning, cryptography, natural language processing, systems, security, and human computer-interaction, have been published about spam and e-mail. The Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam was the first to bring together researchers from these varied fields to a single academic conference where they could exchange ideas and compare techniques. Many topics were covered at the conference. Five papers considered email in general, unrelated to spam. Of course, spam is the biggest problem afflicting e-mail today, and seven papers considered nonstatistical techniques for stopping it. Additionally, four papers looked at statistical or machine learning techniques. Two papers considered network techniques for stopping spam, and two others investigated the techniques used by spammers and phishers (e-mail scam artists). Three papers considered issues of identity in e-mail. We were pleased to have six papers on law and policy, and an invited talk by Lawrence Lessig, professor of law and the John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford University. Hal Varian (Class of 1944 Professor at the School of Information Management and Systems, Haas School of Business, and the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley) also presented an invited talk—entitled “Who Signed up for the Do Not Call List.” Finally, five panelists discussed the topic “Payment for Anti-Spam: Time, Money, and Puzzles.” This conference was the first in an annual series. The Second Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam will be held from July 21 to July 22, 2005 at Stanford University.2 ■ The First Conference on E-mail and AntiSpam was held from July 30 to July 31, 2004 in Mountain View, California. The conference, attended by 180 researchers, featured 29 papers that covered a number of topics, including e-mail in general, nonstatistical techniques for stopping spam, machine learning techniques, issues of identity in e-mail, as well as law and policy. The 2005 conference will be held at Stanford University from July 21 to 22.