I apologize that the message i sent below was not more transparent. I expected most people here to have some knowledge of the early history of arpanet and other associated developments. But email/message systems were started very early in the late 60's and by 1978 they were all over the place with companies and universities using them. To put out a newspaper article that someone in 1978 had sort of invented the field was a bit much for many old timers. Since that message lots of comments have appeared on the Washington post article and the paper has made corrections and realized that a copyright of a single program is not a trademark for the term. It was as pad as claims by some politicians that they are responsible for the INTERNET. In 1971 i approached Larry Roberts and asked him to release some data and specifications on the use of messaging on the arrpanet so i could compare it to what i was doing at OEP with EMISARI. This had a complete message subsystem. i was told by an anonymous party that they did not want to admit that messaging was teh most popular and used application on the ARPANET for fear congress would cut off some of their funding for using such an expensive research system for replacing 10 cent letters rather than the types of applications they had sold the arpanet on!! Message: 1 Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:45:03 -0500 From: Murray Turoff <murray.turoff@gmail.com> To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] A rewrite of our history Message-ID: <CAD-aGywFSj+gn0cP167j7j3cPOkzavy=aF23USHTWCcY4a2NWg@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Some of you who are interested in the history of our field might find this as disturbing as i did. * The inventor of e-mail on innovation and his path to the Smithsonian< http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/MEPMRJ/NSC4SB/ZCNCKZ/FVLP7K/7278IF/50...
* V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai spoke about the discovery he made at the age of 14, and his path from a New Jersey high school to the Smithsonian. ( by Emi Kolawole , The Washington Post) he discovered e-mail in 1978!!!! It seems MIT and the Smithsonian have agreed on this.. *Distinguished Professor Emeritus Information Systems, NJIT homepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff * -- *Distinguished Professor Emeritus Information Systems, NJIT homepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff *