[SIGCIS-Members] Who invented email?

[Pierre Mounier]

Hello,

A late follow-up on the discussion about the origins of “email”. I  
asked Louis Pouzin what word they used in Cyclades,  the Arpanet-like  
network developed in France in the early 1970s. Quick answer (my  
translation):
“I don’t remember precisely all our reveries of that time. I think we  
said ‘messageries’ [mailing]. It was not a priority. Perhaps toward  
1973 someone installed some rather basic software in Cyclades,  but we  
didn’ use it much. Until around 1980,  in France,  there was a variety  
of ‘messageries’,  as each lab,  computer centre or inspired hacker  
tended to develop one’s own. It was probably the arrival of Multics  
which forced an alignment on the Arpanet standard.”

Best,
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn

CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne
http://pups.paris-sorbonne.fr/pages/aff_livre.php?Id=838
http://www.koyre.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/CV-Mounier-Kuhn_1_.pdf