Paolo blog: Ramblings on Web2.0, Trust, Reputation, Recommender Systems, Social Software, Free Software, ICT4D and much more

Have you ever sent an email writing “in attachment you can find…” and then forgot to attach the file? Have you ever received such an email? I guess so. At least I had, many times. So, I’m invoking the LazyWeb and asking for an extension to the free software mail reader Thunderbird (link not working at the moment, use the cached version). A name for the extension can be NeverForgetAttachment but of course the creator will decide the name. How could the extension work? Version 0.1 will simply look for the words “attach” or “attachment” and, in case they are present and there is no attachment when the user clicks the send button, a small window such as the one you see in this post will popup and asks the user if she wants to attach a file. Following versions can even use some machine learning in order to learn which words (or combination of words) refer to an email with a desired attachment and which don’t and react consequently. This can especially be the case if the author don’t want to enter the relative “attach” word for every language in the world. Ok, I’m waiting for someone to create the extension, could this be you?