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Cyhist Feb 19 1997 J
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Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 21:50:00 PST
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@VORTEX.COM>
Subject: E-mail vs. TWX
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Greetings. First, I'd like to second the recommendation that interested parties check out the MSGGROUP archives for discussions in this area. While I don't have a complete private archive of all the messages, I just looked over some of the ones in my "antiquity" directories, which reminded me of the, uh, "spirited" discussions we had in that list back then.
I've long felt that e-mail's (I prefer the term "email", but I won't fight it) roots can be traced back to conventions established in the TELEX and TWX networks (the former using model 32 Baudot (2-row) Teletypes, the latter using ASCII (3-row) TTY units. While much TELEX and TWX activity was in realtime (that is, more of a TALK situation than e-mail), some of the deferred delivery systems developed for both TELEX and TWX closely resembled what we'd come to know as e-mail, and many of the persons building early e-mail systems had been exposed to both of those earlier communications environments.
There're a bunch of stories regarding early e-mail development (relating especially to maximum length of messages, new mail notification systems, and so on) that have considerable entertainment value and that I really should relate at some point...
--Lauren--
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Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@VORTEX.COM>
Subject: E-mail vs. TWX
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Greetings. First, I'd like to second the recommendation that interested parties check out the MSGGROUP archives for discussions in this area. While I don't have a complete private archive of all the messages, I just looked over some of the ones in my "antiquity" directories, which reminded me of the, uh, "spirited" discussions we had in that list back then.
I've long felt that e-mail's (I prefer the term "email", but I won't fight it) roots can be traced back to conventions established in the TELEX and TWX networks (the former using model 32 Baudot (2-row) Teletypes, the latter using ASCII (3-row) TTY units. While much TELEX and TWX activity was in realtime (that is, more of a TALK situation than e-mail), some of the deferred delivery systems developed for both TELEX and TWX closely resembled what we'd come to know as e-mail, and many of the persons building early e-mail systems had been exposed to both of those earlier communications environments.
There're a bunch of stories regarding early e-mail development (relating especially to maximum length of messages, new mail notification systems, and so on) that have considerable entertainment value and that I really should relate at some point...
--Lauren--
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