ACTIVE M3. An authoring system for active multimedia mail

Today the idea and the mechanisms of MultiMedia Mail (MMM), the transmission of multimedia information like images, audio and video objects etc. as an extension to email, and the related problems and solution concepts are very well known. The idea of Computational or Active Mail (AM) has existed since 1976; transfer programs embedded in standard mail which automatically execute at the receivers site, bringing mails to life. The integration of both mechanisms (MMM and AM) leads to the concept of Active MultiMedia Mail. The objective of ACTIVE M3 is the development and implement of a system for the realization of Active MultiMedia Mail and a Composing Tool as an easy to use interactive authoring environment. This paper introduces the basic ideas. The results of the proposed concept are presented through a realized prototype