Member Spotlight: Word to the Wise

The following is a guest post from new i2Coalition Member, Word to the Wise. We invite new members to post a spotlight article introducing themselves to the community of the i2Coalition.

About Us

We’re a small company, but we have been a big part of the email ecosystem, assisting email senders and service providers with deliverability software and services. We provide custom strategies and technical recommendations that enable brands to create and manage sustainable email marketing programs. Since 2001, we’ve worked with hundreds of companies to solve technical crises, combat spam and cybercrime, and assist legitimate email senders in reaching customers and prospects. Our main software focus is Abacus, a ticketing system designed to meet the unique needs of abuse and security desks.

In consulting, we work with a broad range of companies to improve delivery and compliance. We help senders build sustainable email programs and reduce the amount of abuse coming from their networks. We work directly with a wide range of email senders to help them understand the current email ecosystem and why their mail isn’t getting to the inbox. Our goal is to make sure companies don’t send email recipients don’t want.

For nearly ten years, Word to the Wise has also ran an important and popular resource community for the email industry, with over a thousand articles to date. Co-founder Steve Atkins has participated in the IETF and contributed to the development of email standards DKIM, SPF and DMARC. Co-founder Laura Atkins works closely with large senders and policy groups such as M3AAWG to help define, promote, and enforce delivery best practices.

On Joining The i2C

We believe strongly that infrastructure is at the heart of every connection people make online. All relationships, transactions, and communication channels rely on the standards, protocols, and best practice commitments of the companies who develop and support these technologies.

At Word to the Wise, we’ve been deeply involved in email infrastructure development, and we wanted to expand our perspective to look more broadly at Internet infrastructures. When i2C came to the M3AAWG conference in San Francisco, they spoke about improving how complaints are managed and handled. As one of the only commercial software companies in that space, we knew we wanted to get involved.

Word to the Wise On Online Issues

Much of our lives is online and many vendors aren’t secure, putting our most important personal and business data at risk. Many of the major breaches over the last few years started with email. Making email more secure will help improve the overall online experience. All of these issues can not be addressed by the email industry alone, other parties must be involved as well.

We also feel strongly about increasing diversity and participation in online spaces. As a woman-led company, we know there are significant issues that need to be addressed. Stalking, harassment, equal compensation and mentorship are a few of the issues that have wide ranging effects on how women and minorities participate in online spaces. Many social networking companies do not have good track records in protecting users from harassment. This needs to change.

Too many people see online spaces as nebulous and “not real.” In reality, people genuinely connect, organize, and participate in online spaces. These spaces need to be protected so this can continue. The Internet is unique in that has facilitated the growth of millions of communities. Unless the infrastructure these communities are built upon is protected, they will crumble.