[LINK] History of Email

[Roger Clarke]

Looking at this (for an entirely different reason):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy

I see the following at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy#E-mail_displaces_telegraphy

"E-mail displaces telegraphy

"E-mail was first invented for Multics in the late 1960s.[citation 
needed] At first, e-mail was only possible between different accounts 
on the same computer (typically a mainframe). UUCP allowed different 
computers to be connected to allow e-mails to be relayed from 
computer to computer. With the growth of the Internet, e-mail began 
to be possible between any two computers with access to the Internet.

"Various private networks (UUNET, the Well, GEnie) had e-mail from 
the 1970s, but subscriptions were quite expensive for an individual, 
$25 to $50 a month, just for e-mail. Internet use was then largely 
limited to government, academia and other government contractors 
until the net was opened to commercial use in the 1980s.

"By the early 1990s, modems made e-mail a viable alternative to telex 
systems in a business environment. But individual e-mail accounts 
were not widely available until local Internet service providers were 
in place, although demand grew rapidly, as e-mail was seen as the 
Internet's killer app. The broad user base created by the demand for 
e-mail smoothed the way for the rapid acceptance of the World Wide 
Web in the mid-1990s."


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW