[SIGCIS-Members] Email inventor: Help me set the record straight for the WP

[Marie Hicks]

Hi everyone,

Tom, that's great news. For what it's worth (and perhaps others here
can chime in with their thoughts), I'd say that keeping the milestones
to 4 would probably serve our side of the story better. Short and
sweet points of historical information that support an easily
graspable overall thesis will grab the casual reader.

I'd also like to resist the urge to go on a credential hunt--I think
that quibbling with Ayyadurai's formal title at MIT will only detract
from the points we'd like to see the public absorb.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on the piece, I'd be happy to
help. Indeed, maybe we, as a group, could offer a vetting of the piece
if you're comfortable with making it into a collaborative SIGCIS
endeavor over the list. Not only might it give the resulting piece
more weight (to be signed by the main collective of historians on
computing history) but it would also be a great way to further enhance
the SIGCIS's public exposure.

Best,

Marie
_______________
Marie Hicks, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History of Technology
Lewis Department of the Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL
mhicks1 at iit.edu
twitter: @histoftech
www.mariehicks.net



On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Thomas Haigh <thaigh at computer.org> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
>
>
> Exciting news! If you read the response from the Washington Post ombudsman,
> you may remember that it mentioned that the post “has invited Ayyadurai and
> MIT to write a response to all the readers who wrote in to denounce the
> story. That also is an excellent way to address the dispute, and enhance the
> discussion. That will be appearing in coming days.”
>
>
>
> I’ve just been asked by Emi Kolawole to prepare a piece disputing
> Ayyadurai’s claim and laying out the actual historical consensus on the
> invention of email. This will presumably run alongside his defense of his
> position. Not sure about length or format yet.
>
>
>
> So, who wants to help me get it right? To avoid spamming the list too much,
> maybe reply to me directly unless you are confident your post will be of
> general interest to the list.
>
>
>
> Here are a few areas where I’d like to pin things down more and would
> welcome assistance.
>
>
>
> 1)      Does anyone have a usage of “email” or “e-mail” prior to 1980? I
> haven’t looked seriously at this.
>
> 2)      If I had space to mention 6 or 8 milestones in the development of
> “modern email” what would they be? Say a sentence, a date, and maybe a
> person or two for each. I’m thinking something like
>
> a.       CTSS and other timesharing university systems,
>
> b.      ARPANET network mail,
>
> c.       Proprietary commercial email systems
>
> d.      SMTP over TCP/IP,
>
> e.      desktop clients,
>
> f.        Notes
>
> g.       MIME,
>
> h.      webmail.
>
> 3)      Does anyone know MIT job titles? Ayyadurai claims to be a “Faculty
> Lecturer in Biological Engineering” at MIT and this has been widely reported
> and even survived recent upheavals on his Wikipedia page. This seemed rather
> tautological to me, as lecturer is not  usually a faculty position in the
> USA. Googling “Faculty Lecturer” MIT gives no other individuals holding this
> title.  One of his personal pages at MIT includes the title,
> http://web.mit.edu/be/people/ayyadurai.shtml although he does not appear on
> a list of faculty in Biological Engineering
> http://web.mit.edu/be/people/alphabetical.shtml. He is listed on another
> page http://web.mit.edu/be/people/index.shtml  as “Research/Teaching Staff”.
> Doing a “people” search from the MIT web page, which pulls official
> institutional data, gives him only as a Visiting Lecturer (a job title I do
> understand) in Comparative Media Studies. So does the position of “Faculty
> Lecturer” even exist at MIT?
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
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