Email Turns 50, LISTSERV is 35
Email Stays Relevant, Widely Used for Our Everyday Business and Personal Communications
Bethesda (June 21, 2021) – Half a century ago, in 1971, Ray Tomlinson invented email using the @ sign to separate the username and destination server, "user@host". The first networked email system was born. From that point onward, people could send messages on the network of that time, ARPANET.
Fast-forward 15 years to Paris, France, and the introduction of BITNET, aka, "Because It's Time Network". The World Wide Web was yet to be invented by Tim Berners-Lee, yet the nets of the moment were busy. People exchanged email and chat text messages frequently despite minimal bandwidth. Mailing lists existed on LISTSERV@BITNIC, but they required manual administration.
As mailing lists grew to be more popular, the manual system became burdensome to maintain. This sparked Eric Thomas, then an engineering student in Paris, to invent LISTSERV software, to automate mailing lists once and for all – and save bandwidth, too. From then on, the Internet culture of communications and knowledge exchange could continue to flourish.
|