The author notes that electronic mail can include the capability to “mail” not only conventional text messages within single systems, but also formatted text, pictures, animation, audio, video, and more. Widespread use of electronic mail in such a broad sense of what can be transmitted does not exist, or at most can be found operating only within moderate-sized (perhaps parochial) user communities. A reason for this limited acceptance is not that too few standards exist, but that too many standards and interests conflict and users lack motivation to adopt specific standards.

The author proposes getting around the need for a standard interchange format (“at least temporarily”) by using one external program to interpret all foreign mail; this program relies on a locally customized file and ancillary software to perform the translation functions. He identifies this as a “bottom-up” approach and claims it will require minimum investment or disruption of users’ normal practices to implement, will reduce the burden of administering multimedia electronic mail, and will allow evolving development in the absence of standards. The author also points out that the store-and-forward approach of text-based electronic mail simply may not be suitable for the large volumes of data that video, for example, requires.