NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] "The man who did NOT invent email"
"The man who did NOT invent email"
http://j.mp/w0AA3W (This message on Google+)
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Well, I had really hoped to stay out of this one. But my inbox has been
filling up with forwarded articles such as:
http://j.mp/x4Xs76 (Internet Evolution)
arguing about VA Shiva Ayyadurai, who (depending on the version of the
story) claims to have either invented email, or perhaps only the
common header syntax of email (To:, CC:, Subject:, etc.) -- all when
he was only 14-years-old around 1978. Or maybe now the only claim is
that he copyrighted (trademarked?) the term "EMAIL" (uppercase) in
1981.
I'm not going to address the "EMAIL" terminology claims.
But we can certainly dispose of any associated "invention" claims
quickly enough.
Email, EMAIL, E-mail, E-Mail, e-mail, or email -- whatever you want to
call it -- way predates the "involvement" of Ayyadurai.
But rather than dig all the way back into the history of timesharing,
we can burn any of his "interoffice header memo terminology" claims by
referring to this document I have right here on my desk, pulled from
my original ARPANET archives. Wipe off the cobwebs and what
have we got?
Why it looks like "ARPANET Request for Comments RFC 561" --
"Standardizing Network Mail Headers" from 5 September 1973!:
http://j.mp/wCCjdv (IETF)
Even an excerpt is revealing:
<authoritem> ::= FROM: <SP> <user> <SP> AT <SP> <host>
<dateitem> ::= DATE: <SP> <date> <SP> <time> - <zone>
<subjectitem> ::= SUBJECT: <SP> <line>
<miscitem> ::= <keyword> : <SP> <line>
<date> ::= <vdate> ! <tdate>
<vdate> ::= <dayofmonth> <SP> <vmonth> <SP> <vyear>
<tdate> ::= <tmonth> / <dayofmonth> / <tyear>
<dayofmonth> ::= one or two decimal digits
<vmonth> ::= JAN ! FEB ! MAR ! APR ! MAY ! JUN !
JUL ! AUG ! SEP ! OCT ! NOV ! DEC
Golly. There are those handy header elements. And email itself goes
back further of course.
Having worked in the past on mail system implementations, I'm intimately
familiar with RFC 561, and superseding documents like RFC 733 (1977)
and RFC 822 (1982).
I can't find Ayyadurai's name anywhere in any of these foundational texts.
Q.E.D. Case closed.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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