MECCA: A Message-Enabled Communication and Information System

Abstract : This note describes the design principles, functionality and prototype of the MECCA communication and information system. MECCA provides automatic administration of a membership-based electronic mail community. Introduction MECCA is a system currently under development at Digital's Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. A beta-test with 50 members currently exists. Two larger installations, with 1500 and 250 members, will be in place by late February 1993. The goals of the MECCA design are simplicity, generality and flexibility. MECCA provides a flexible set of tools for managing electronic mail (email) communication and accessing infor- mation via email. It gets information easily to the the right people based on who, where or what they are or on their interests. The difference between MECCA and all other email distribution systems is that it provides automatic administration of a membership-based email community. Membership is defined as the existence of an entry in a database. The concept of membership implies the existence of policies for acceptance as a member and the provision of security against intrusion by non- members. We separate the notion of policy from that of mechanism by providing mechanisms for instituting policies rather than defining what those policies should be.