The frustrating and time-consuming problem of working out people’s electronic mail addresses may be at an end, following the announcement last week of a universal personal naming recommendation by the World Electronic Messaging Association. The new initiative was agreed by the Association, which is a combination of the European, Japanese, Asia Oceanic, Australian and US electronic messaging associations. The Messaging Association recommends that every electronic messaging user should be addressable by at least their Given Name, Initials, and Family name – irrespective of the messaging system they are using – either X.400 or Internet. The standard is based on existing international X.400 and X.500 standards for electronic mail exchange and directories. Henk Tobias, chairman of the European Electronic Messaging Association’s User Committee, said Electronic messaging and electronic mail are critical business tools, but the uptake of electronic mail has been hampered by the fact that governments and suppliers have been unable to agree on common personal naming. For example, Henk Tobias’s electronic mail address would be something like henk.tobias@eema.org. In addition, the European Electronic Messaging Association is collaborating with the Electronic Messaging Association in the US to merge their ‘User Requirements’ documents into one World Electronic Messaging Association User Requirements Year 2000 document. It is to be published before the end of the year.