“COM125 Week2: Electronic Mail”

History of the Electronic Mail (EMAIL)

Despite what the World Wide Web offers, email remains the most important application of the Internet and the most widely used facility it has. Now more than 600 million people internationally use email.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).

Email evolved from very simple beginnings.Early email was just a small advance on what we know these days as a file directory. They just put a message in another user's directory in a spot where they could see it when they logged in.

Probably the first email system of this type was MAILBOX, used at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1965. Another early program to send messages on the same computer was called SNDMSG.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).

Before internetworking began, email could only be used to send messages to various users of the same computer. Once computers began to talk to each other over networks, the problem became a little more complex. They needed to be able to put a message in an envelope and address it. To do this, they needed a means to indicate to whom letters should go to so that the electronic posties be understood.

This is why Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing email in 1972.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).Like many of the Internet inventors, Tomlinson worked for Bolt Beranek and Newman as an ARPANET contractor. He picked the @ symbol from the computer keyboard to denote sending messages from one computer to another. So then, for anyone using Internet standards, it was simply a matter of nominating name-of-the-user@name-of-the-computer.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).

Things developed rapidly from there. Larry Roberts invented some email folders for his boss so he could sort his mail, which is a big advance.("Lowe, Richard: The First Email",(n.d.).In 1975 John Vital developed some software to organize email. By 1976 email had really taken off, and commercial packages began to appear. Within a couple of years, 75% of all ARPANET traffic was email.("Lowe, Richard: The First Email",(n.d.).

The first important email standard was called SMTP, or simple message transfer protocol.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).SMTP was a fairly naive protocol, and made no attempt to find out whether the person claiming to send a message was the person they purported to be. Forgery was (and still is) very easy in email addresses. These basic flaws in the protocol were later to be exploited by viruses, by security frauds and spammers.("Peter, Ian: The History of email",n.d.).

But as it developed, email started to take on some pretty neat features. One of the first good commercial systems was Eudora, developed by Steve Dorner in 1988.("Lowe, Richard: The First Email",(n.d.).Not long after Pegasus mail appeared. When Internet standards for email began to mature the POP (or Post Office Protocol) servers began to appear as a standard - before that each server was a little different. POP was an important standard to allow users to develop mail systems that would work with each other. With the World Wide Web, email started to be made available with friendly web interfaces by providers such as Yahoo and Hotmail.("Lowe, Richard: The First Email",(n.d.).

Benefits of Email

The use of email in undoubtedly viewed as a wonderful convenience to many individuals. It is now possible to avoid the long period of waiting that is unavoidable before one is able to ascertain whether an important letter has arrived safely in one’s mailbox. With email, the letter can be sent and received within seconds, no postage fee needed and no searching around for an envelope.

This form of convenience and speed would not only safe time and money for the individuals, it has also herald a change in the working habits of society. Now, more people find it feasible to work at home, at their own time for the use of email would enable these people to send in their projects and proposals on time.

Email is also a boon for those working or studying overseas. These individuals find it easy to trade greetings, information and discussions through email. Email also allows much more than a telephone call. One can send attachments of music files, pictures and many other things along with a short note which makes email feel more interactive than a telephone call.

Cons of Email

Still, despite the many conveniences that the increasing use of email would bring, all is not a bed of roses. The anonymity and easy access to email often results in one’s mailbox being flooded with spam mail and useless chain letters. In any case, it has become an established fact that it is through email and their attachments that viruses are most often spread. This would pose a threat to individuals, even to society, for once email is widely used, viruses attack would be an incredible disruption to society just like the case of “Chenobyl Virus” which wiped out the memories of numerous personal and business computers all around the world.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be seen that just as new technology has brought about benefits, it also brings about new problems. We thus need to exercise self control to prevent abuse on this new technology. Only then can we benefit from the advantages of email and not lose our humanity.


References

Wikipedia. (2007, January 25). Email. Retrieved January 25, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email

Peter, Ian: The History of email (n.d.) Retrieved January 25, 2007, from
http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html

Lowe, Richard: Mail Msg (n.d.) Retrieved January 26, 2007, from
http://www.mailmsg.com/

Lowe, Richard: The First Email (n.d.) Retrieved January 26, 2007, from
http://www.mailmsg.com/history.htm

Forward in the Fifth: Advantages and Disadvantages of email (n.d.) Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://www.fif.org/olt4a/olt4aadvantages.htm

Passion Computing: Using email effectively (n.d.) Retrieved January 26, 2007, from
http://www.passioncomputing.com.au/Web_Copywriting/Using_email.aspx