How The Guy Who Didn't Invent Email Got Memorialized In The Press & The Smithsonian As The Inventor Of Email
from the damn-you-wikipedia dept
Late last week, the Washington Post reported that The Smithsonian had acquired "tapes, documentation, copyrights, and over 50,000 lines of code from V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, who both the Smithsonian and the Washington Post insisted was the "inventor of e-mail." There's just one problem with this: It's not actually true. Lots of internet old-timers quickly started to speak out against this, especially on Dave Farber's Interesting People email list, where they highlighted how it's just not true. As is nicely summarized on Wikipedia's talk page about Ayyadurai, he was responsible for "merely inventing an email management system that he named EMAIL," which came long after email itself. The Washington Post eventually offered the following "clarification":Clarification: A number of readers have accurately pointed out that electronic messaging predates V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai’s work in 1978. However, Ayyadurai holds the copyright to the computer program called "email," establishing him as the creator of the “computer program for [an] electronic mail system” with that name, according to the U.S. Copyright Office.Except... that "clarification" seems to confuse copyright with patents. Copyright is only over the specific copyrightable work created -- which would be the specific code he used. It does not, in any way, establish him as "the creator" of "the" electronic mail system -- merely an electronic mail system -- and hardly the first one. I could write some sort of email management software tomorrow and copyright that... and it would no more make me an "inventor" of email than Ayyadurai.
There's a detailed history of email over at the NetHistory site, and you'll note that Ayyadurai doesn't warrant a mention -- which isn't surprising since his work comes way after most of the important stuff was done. Thomas Haigh sent a detailed email to the SIGCIS list, breaking down what happened. Apparently, Time Magazine ran a profile of Ayyadurai a few months back, calling him "the man who invented email," which resulted in the Smithsonian's interest. But even that article notes at the beginning that Ayyadurai actually just holds a copyright on EMAIL, rather than email itself. It even asks about the fact that Ray Tomlinson is often credited as being the inventor of email -- and his efforts came much earlier.
Either way, it appears that Ayyadurai has played up this idea that he's the inventor of email, despite little to back that up (apparently frustrating many people who actually know the history). Yes, he copyrighted a particular bit of code, but there's little to support the idea that he had very much to do with "the invention of email" in any way. But, that's not what the Washington Post (or, apparently, the Smithsonian) will tell you...
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Filed Under: copyright, email, history, inventor, va shiva ayyadurai
Companies: smithsonian, time, washington post
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G.E.A.R.
I think I'll code something whose name works out to 'GEAR' or 'WHEEL' or 'FOOD' and with any luck, I'll be in the Smithsonian as the inventor of food!
Pretty crafty, that guy. On par with that Thomas Edison fellow...
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Re: G.E.A.R.
2. Demand compensation from all the products of said method.
3. ??
4. Profit!!
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You fiends
claiming that copyright isn't proof of invention and robbing this poor soul blind. What next, are you going to claim that WB doesn't own the wizard of oz!
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http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/10122849.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS&date =Aug+4%2C+1996&author=Hafner%2C+Katie%3BLyon%2C+Matthew&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition= &startpage=WMAG9&desc=Talking+headers%3A++One+September+evening+in+1973
"Electronic mail is the most important two-way communications medium since the telephone, which makes the serendipitous way it was invented in 1973 all the more astonishing."
I believe you can read the article itself, here: http://www.olografix.org/gubi/estate/libri/wizards/email.html
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Please don't flame
Let's look at the article linked as "it's just not true" in the first paragraph:
http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/2012/02/sort/thread/page/4/entry/4:99/20120219 141237:ADCAD69A-5B2D-11E1-8876-F3FC0C963953/
What was around before was just messaging through an FTP server.
There had been discussions of standards, headings, folders, etc., but as far as one can tell from the article cited above, Wikipedia, etc., it doesn't look like anything to that effect had been coded when Ayyadurai wrote his code.
Also, if his code made electronic messaging more accessible to the general populace, and modern email did, in fact, evolve from his code, I think it's fair to call him the inventor of email (even without quotation marks).
To me this seems like a case of bitterness and envy on the part of people who were in the field at the time who failed to recognize the steps that Ayyadurai took.
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Re: Please don't flame
/peter
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Re: Please don't flame
but if he invented the car in 1978, what was
that '76 convertible I used to drive?
We had network mail with every one of these claimed innovations way before 1978.
EMACS had at least two mail sub-systems, RMAIL and BABYL, pre-mouse so 1-key Delete, Forward, Reply, Output to another folder, delivery to, from, bcc, etc., etc., long before the fake 1978 claims.
Peace
--Devon
PS: When a joker claims he invented the automobile in 1978 that's not news. When a reporter buys such a joke and the Washington Post prints it - now that's news. Give good interview and today's press'll give you a pass on facts?
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Re: Please don't flame
In case anyone thinks I could be mistaken about long-ago dates, I still have a 1976 printout of some of my email, and it looks just like the usual email: for each message there are a few header lines (message ID and date/time, From, To list, CC list, Subject), a blank line, and then the body. The only thing that looks strange about it in 2012 is that all the letters are upper case (the online system it ran on gave up lower-case letters in favour of additional special characters), something you will also see if you look at old programming languages such as FORTRAN, BASIC, and COBOL. Back then a lack of mixed case was acceptable because people were used to it in telegraph messages etc., and today we often have the same thing where people don't bother with capitalization in SMS text messages or in instant messaging or chat. (Speaking of which, I first used IM in 1972 or 1973; it's not only email that's old.)
That email system included an API, which I used when I wrote some software that archived emails I wanted to keep, complete with tags (back then we called them "keywords") that I could run searches on. This was one of the first "products" that I ever built, as some 60 people eventually used it.
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reminds me of the wright brothers
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Guys like ray just want to create and keep creating.
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Telegraphy Is Email
The term "email" is simply putting an "e" (for "electronic") in front of the existing word "mail". Golly, what an advance, someone tell the Smithsonian.
The Smithsonian really should be doing a whole lot better at providing the historical context. After all, that is supposed to be their job. It would be nice if they were to actually do it.
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We're working without definitions here...
I'm actually in Shiva's class this semester (Systems Visualization), and based on my limited interaction with him so far, I would guess that his concept of email is very systems-oriented. He would likely say that lumping all "electronic messaging" together is unwarranted, and that he's never claimed to have invented that. I am not defending him, as I'm unaware of all the facts here; I am merely suggesting that there may be different ways of thinking about this.
If you say email is a way to send messages between computers, Shiva did not invent it. If you say email is a system that manages the sending and receiving of electronic letters (as opposed to short messages or public messages), acting as the digital version of a postal service, then it is less clear. As others here have pointed out, invention is quite a vague thing to attribute to a single person.
Anyway, the class meets again on Friday, so if you want me to ask him something directly, reply to this comment.
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If you find any issues that I might have overlooked, please contact the General Oversight Desk and let the guy who answers the phone know what's up. I'll take a look when I can.
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email
If these engineers from countries like india and china hadnt been here, we would have been just like Africa.
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HOWEVER
The 14 year old cannot truthfully claim he invented the plane. Specially if he followed the blue-prints someone else created before hand. Invention requires that you create things on your own.
This is exactly the case here. He claims he invented something that was already running commercially at least 5 years before. And that there was a RFC BEFORE his claim of invention.
Since he repeatedly did try to make people believe something that has being proved over and over to be false. Is not a case of a simple error on his part. Is an overt case of fraud.
To paraphrase Tesla.
"Is not that they stole the idea from me. Is that they do not have ideas on its own." And he did believed what he said. As he had no problem with Marconi using concepts on his patents without paying. It was the ones that didn't do anything to further science that got in his nerves.
If the guy is so brilliant. Then, what has he invented afterwards?
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Pathetic article.. Just plain bashing
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very funny media
so hw cme u greet 'Mark Zuckerberg' for 'his' success??? morons!..
get sme real job... :P :D
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very funny media
so hw cme u greet 'Mark Zuckerberg' for 'his' success??? morons!..
get sme real job... :P :D
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Calm Down
What is this, a witch hunt against a 14 year old boy so motivated to make a difference for his community that he invented something amazing? SHAME ON YOU for this comment chain.
Go invent something yourself rather than attack others for their very real and very well earned efforts.
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Underlying protocols
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