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In the July 2009 Computer magazine, they talk about "Channel Email." Basically, channel email attempts to reduce spam by a simple handshake protocol (both have to agree to the communication before it will happen). So, instead of email automatically being received no matter what (sender having absolute control), the receiver would have to accept the email before they receive it (sender and receiver having control). There are no anti-AI queries (users don't have to verify they are human) in channel email (it isn't needed).
Three main modes
Initially, users of Channel email would be under the default "Accept All." In the "Accept All" state, any receiver will receive messages normally if they have an open channel with the sender, but if they don't have an open channel, their email client will automatically respond to all incoming emails saying please reply to this email, and here's what's going on (explain what channel email is and how it is useful). The sender would then reply to the email (probably have a unique code in the message so spammers can't just resend the email). Once they reply, the receiver would be able to see the original message (the sender wouldn't have to resend it). After that, all emails would be sent normally, until the channel is closed by either party. (then they would repeat the starting thing to reopen the channel). This step reduces spam, as the receiver has to receive emails to be able to send emails (which they usually don't).
Then, as users start to understand channel email, they could switch to "Ask," in which case they receive smaller messages that just ask them if they want to open the channel (they can then not accept obvious sources of spam).
Extreme users could also "Deny All," in which case channel email just never responds to the first message and just automatically deletes any emails not from an already open channel.
Transition from non-Channel to Channel email
This would be easy to transition to, as users that don't have it would just have to reply to an email on their first message to a channel email user.
-Non-channel senders would have to reply to an email, then resend their message (something they probably wouldn't mind doing, as the email they reply to would explain why it's happening), while
-Non-channel receivers would have to just reply to a simple message that says "lets talk about <email subject>." After they replied, the actual message would be sent.
Channel Email's stages
Channel email has four stages:
1) Channel Request/permission
- Sender sends email (very small message requesting permission to send the email ).
2) Channel Permission
- Receiver accepts the channel (or denies it, in which case the receiver just deletes it).
3) Message Transmissions
- Sender and Receiver send messages like in normal email.
4) Channel Closure
- One or both parties stop accepting transmissions (other party told of this with a short message if desired). No communication occurs until stages 1-2 are done again.
Notes that will probably be deleted after someone else reads this
Notes: I copied terms (1 or 2 words) directly from the July 2009 Computer magazine article for clarity. I wrote almost everything else myself after reading it once to avoid copyright issues (which is why it isn't as clear or convincing as the original article).