I check my e-mail about 3 times a day. Every time I check it, my inbox shows 10 to 20 new e-mails. A lot of them are personal, about work or university, but most of them are action alerts about any subject. Sometimes it's just a newsletter, or some ngo trying to convince me to donate (which I don't, because I have hardly enough money for my own good cause (=food, rent, clothes)).

I'm subscribed to all those e-mail lists because I want to be informed of new actions (petitions etcetera) which I can take. Or I take an action and forget to uncheck the 'please send me newsletters'-box. Now, I get a lot of mails which I don't want, which I have to delete, and which make my inbox too full.

Do you recognise this?

I tend to delete all newsletters, because I don't have time to read them all and find the 'take action' button in one of ten e-mails.

What I would love, is one e-mail a day, with all new action alerts that I'm interested in and that I can take (for example: no US-only petitions). And a link 'more information' if I want to read more about this cause.

I know things like this exist within care2: one message a day or week with a lot of new or old but unknown actions, listed under 'US only' or 'gay rights' or 'save seals'. But should it be possible, to create a system, for all activists (animal, politics, woman's rights, nature, whatever) to recieve any information they want on their way?

Let me explain. Every ngo can or sould be involved. Whenever they have something to say, they classify their message: news, background, action alert, etcetera. Next, they specify the subject: wild horses, gay rights, health in the US, etcetera. And finally, they note their target: US residence only, people who own a pet in the EU, ... or everyone.

Everyone who is interested in mail or post or twitter from any ngo, goes to a certain website. Here they can fill in their personal data (country, age...), in which causes they are interested (wild horses, gay rights, health in the US, etcetera) and what kind of newsletters they want to recieve (news, background, action alert, etcetera).

The messages goes to a central server (I don't know much about computers, but I do know it is a realistic idea). There, it filters to wich people this message will go. Of course, every mail contains a 'this message has the wrong label'-link and a 'you can change your subscribtion filters here'-link, which direct to the website described above.

This way, you can also recieve mail from some small unknown organisation in Unknownland, about the gay rights in that country or about child labour, or whatever, and you'll never miss peitions for the seals again.

Of course, this system can be improved in may ways. A uniform log-in system for all ngo websites and action centres, for example, with a personal profile...

So I won't get any more 'please come to our demonstration in California'-mails, because that is just a little too far away from my place.


Please, tell me what you think of this plan. Do you have the same troubles? Do you like the plan? Is it realistic? How can we realise it?

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Thanks for every input!

SPECIAL THANKS TO FRANK H.