Hello, (Thomas Haigh here, using Maria's email to post to the list), I can help clarify the current historical understanding of this, as chair of SIGCIS (www.sigcis.org), the group for historians of information technology.. There are basically two ways to think about "first email." 1) The first "mail" system to let a user write a message to another user of the same computer system, who could read it when he/she next logged in. This was a step beyond earlier chat/talk capabilities that only allowed instant display of messages. Mail features became common on the timesharing computers of the late 1960s (timesharing allowed multiple people to use a single computer interactively). MIT is a strong contender for the first place where this happened. A series of NY Times blog posts suggested that MIT CTSS in 1965 might have been the first system to include such a mail feature. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/did-my-brother-invent-e-mail.... This seems plausible. 2) The first system to send a message to someone using a DIFFERENT computer, via a network. This appears to have been on the ARPANET in 1971, with initial implementation by Ray Tomlinson. Janet Abbate's book Inventing the Internet includes a solid treatment of this, making clear that "network mail" became the "killer application" for ARPANET even though remote logins had been the application for which it was originally designed. Craig Partridge followed up later developments in "The Technical Development of Internet Email" published in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30:2, April-June 2008:3-29.I looked at the commercialization of Internet email in "Protocols for Profit: Web and E-mail Technologies as Product and Infrastructure" in The Internet and American Business, edited by William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008: 105-158. (http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/ProtocolsForProfitDRAFT.pdf) Neither of these senses, as Murray Turoff points out, would support the claim that email was invented in 1978 by 14 year old. The Washington Post article at http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/MEPMRJ/NSC4SB/ZCNCKZ/FVLP7K/7278IF/50... is pretty much incoherent. A disclaimer now says that "Ayyadurai holds the copyright to the computer program called“email,” establishing him as the creator of the “computer program for [an] electronic mail system” with that name, according to the U.S. Copyright Office." They seem to be confusing copyright protection with patent patent protection, and implying that he would only have copyright on a program he created if it was the first of its kind. I could write a program called "operating system" tomorrow and it would be copyrighted, but it wouldn't mean I invented operating systems.Wouldn't mean I could trademark it either, which could also be what they are confusing it with. V.A. Shiva Ayyadura's website seems to be full of new age self promotion. He bills himself as "Founder, Chairman and President of the Institute for Integrative Systems" in a video promoting "Turmeric: Wonder Herb of India." The description on his publications page http://www.vashiva.com/publications.asp of his book "The EMAIL Revolution" is the old placeholder text: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...." His list of "Chapters in Books" includes his 1990 masters thesis, a paper at "Document Analysis Conference" in 1994 "submitted for publication" and items described only as "Chapter in Communications Arts" and "Chapter on Electrodynamics, Dynamics,". Meanwhile his page on himself as "the inventor of EMAIL" (http://www.vashiva.com/inventing_email.asp) includes two headings of "First US Copyright for EMAIL, 1982" one above a copyright certificate and once above a 2004 patent for an automated reply system. So the closer one looks the less substantial his scholarly credentials appear. The kindest thing one can say is that he does consistently capitalize EMAIL, allowing for a legalistic defense that he only means to claim to have invented a program called "EMAIL" rather than the idea of electronic mail. He also seems to have confused a blogger at Time: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/15/the-man-who-invented-email/ into believing he produced the first email system. Of course it would be nice if journalists would check claims before reporting them (at least, say, with Wikipedia) or read the historical literature, or call a historian. Anyone with an interest in history of IT issues is encouraged to join SIGCIS, which is free, and to participate in our email list. Querying that list would be another way to check facts on IT history. Finally, if you are curious about Murray Turoff's own contributions to electronic communication, a biography of him by Ramesh Subramanian will be appearing the next issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:17 PM, Murray Turoff <murray.turoff@gmail.com> wrote:
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 * _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Maria Haigh, Ph.D. mhaigh@uwm.edu Associate Professor University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies 3210 N. Maryland Ave Bolton Hall, Rm. 568 Milwaukee, WI 53211 Tel. 414-229-5397 http://www.tomandmaria.com/maria/