The Responsible Electronic Communication Alliance, a group of e-mail marketers and service bureaus formed to create industry standards for online marketing, became official last week as it announced its 15 charter members as well as its president and executive director.
Founding members of RECA, Washington, include 24/7 Media, @Once, Acxiom Corp., American List Counsel, Bigfoot Interactive, ClickAction, Digital Impact, DoubleClick, e-Dialog, EmailChannel, FloNetwork, Netcentives, Phase2Media, Responsys and yesmail.com.
The organization is headed by Richard Wolf, an Internet attorney who is RECA's president, and Peter Arnold, former director of an Internet coalition that lobbied against regulation, who is executive director.
On its new site, RECA said its goal is “to create and promote best practices for companies involved in online marketing.” The group also stated that it would issue “detailed principles” based on the Fair Information Practices endorsed by the Federal Trade Commission in July.
RECA is one of three e-mail coalitions that seek to establish voluntary standards for e-mail marketing behavior. The oldest and still largest of the three is the Association of Interactive Media's Council for Responsible Email. Another coalition, called the Email Standards Working Group, also formed this summer. Some of the e-mail firms, such as yesmail and EmailChannel, are participating in more than one of these groups.
— Jason Gonzalez
