Email Message

An Email Message is a mail message that is sent in an Email Event (with an email client over an email protocol).

• AKA: E-Mail, Email.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) travel via an Email Protocol such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for sending or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and POP3 for retrieval.
  • It can (often) contain a Message Header (with sender, recipient, subject, and other metadata).
  • It can (often) contain a Message Body (the main content of the email).
  • It can (often) be written with an Email Client.
  • It can (often) be sent with an Email Client.
  • It can (often) be read with an Email Client.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Personal Email to being a Broadcast Email.
  • It can range from being a Relevant Email to being a Spam Email.
  • ...
  • It can be a member of an Email Corpus (such as an Enron email corpus).
  • It can be enhanced with Multimedia Attachments such as images, videos, and documents using MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions).
  • It can include carbon copy (CC) and blind carbon copy (BCC) recipients to send a message to additional people beyond the primary recipient(s).
  • It can be encrypted using protocols like S/MIME or PGP to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of its contents.
  • It can support formatting with HTML Email to include rich text, colors, and layout designs.
  • It can include a Signature Block at the end, providing the sender’s contact information or a closing message.
  • It can be part of an Email Thread that involves a series of replies to the same initial message.
  • It can include Automated Email Responses like out-of-office replies or receipt confirmations.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • A Personal Email from one individual to another with casual communication.
  • A Broadcast Email sent to a large group of people, such as a newsletter or a company-wide announcement.
  • A Transactional Email confirming an online purchase or registration for a service.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Instant Message, which is typically sent in real-time and lacks the formal structure of email.
  • an SMS Message, a short text message sent over cellular networks.
  • a Mail Letter, a physical piece of correspondence sent via postal service.
  • an HTTP Request, which is a communication request between a web client and a server, unrelated to email.
• See: Written Artifact, Electronic Communication, SMTP, IMAP, Spam Email.

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References

2009

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=email
  • S: (n) electronic mail, e-mail, email ((computer science) a system of world-wide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that can be regenerated at the recipient's terminal when the recipient logs in) "you cannot send packages by electronic mail"
  • S: (v) e-mail, email, netmail (communicate electronically on the computer) "she e-mailed me the good news"
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail
  • Electronic mail, most commonly abbreviated email and e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Originally, e-mail was always transmitted directly from one user's device to another's; nowadays this is rarely the case.
  • An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email's content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field.
  • Originally a text-only communications medium, email was extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).

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