History of Electronic Mail
... However, electronic mail (or E-mail, as it comes to be known) became the most commonly used feature of the network in its early years. Pre-ARPAnet time-sharing systems, in which numerous terminals scattered over one site are linked to one host computer, had offered E-mail-like systems. But those systems provided little advantage over regular office or campus mail (qtd. ... Such users could create a text file and deliver it to a designated ‘mail box’ (qtd. ... The third program to be implemented was READMAIL (pronounced “read mail”); it transferred user messages from one computer to another (Moschovitis, Christos, et al 73). All of these programs combined became the foundation for what we call electronic mail, better known as E-mail today. ... Tomlinson is credited for progressively altering the future of electronic communications while being the least known person in history. ... Before anyone can begin to appreciate the brilliance of Tomlinson, they need to understand the history behind his great success. ... ARPAnet’s next big unveiling would be the first international E-mail message sent in 1973 by a network researcher and ARPAnet user across the Atlantic. ... The initial response was poor as MacKenzie received hate mail for an hour after their introduction to the group, but they soon caught on and so did everyone else as a new craze began all around the world (Loftus 56). ... The deal that sealed it all for E-mail was when in 1983, Colby College in Waterville, Maine, became the first campus to assign E-mail accounts to all of its students (Loftus 56). Now electronic mail had been approved by a higher level of education and would be used for multiple means.