Cyhist Feb 19 1997 Q

Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 16:31:57 EST
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: Joshua Lederberg <jsl@ROCKVAX.ROCKEFELLER.EDU>
Subject: Re: Beginnings of E-mail _ *definitions*??

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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________


<<<<<<
>When, where, to who and how was the FIRST e-mail sent? I am interested in knowing the history of e-mail and how it came to where it is today... so feel free to expand past the initial e-mail occurence!
>>>>>>>

Let's have some definitions, please!! We need some boundaries between telegrams, telex, .....

I defined it as electronic messaging backed up by retrievable computer files. There must have been a multitude of local shared-files doubling as email as soon as there was any time-sharing.

And file-transfer from computer to computer not involving shared memory --- when?

For some retrospection on packet-switching, and use of e-mail thereby, see this issue of Proc IEEE
Proc. of the IEEE (1978) 66 (11) Nov. 1978

and my own article specifically on email: Lederberg, J.
Digital communications and the conduct of science: The new literacy. Proc. of the IEEE (1978), 66(11):1314-1319.

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