[SIGCIS-Members] Resources on Ayyadurai saga

[Thomas Haigh]

Sounds like good idea. I’m busy with some other projects right now, and in any event it would be good to have somebody else take the lead on this for a while – make it more apparent to casual observers that there is a consensus in the history of computing community on this.

 

Here are some resources that might be useful for someone thinking of writing on this issue:

 

·               http://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai  - my main page (includes links to various video and media content that would look good in a blog post, including a Xerox video). This tries to document and evaluate every historical claim made by Ayyadurai. 

·               http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACM-SevenLessons.pdf my CACM article with lessons to be learned from the initial part of the case. This is more of a general reflection on what was going on from a media narrative viewpoint.

·               http://www.inventorofemail.com/  Ayyadurai’s own site

·               http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2012/05/shiva-ayyaduri-email-us-postal-service/   Boston globe article – not 100% reliable, but if you read to the end carefully you’ll get the right idea.

·               https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140901/07280928386/huffpo-publishes-bizarre-misleading-factually-incorrect-multi-part-series-pretending-guy-invented-email-even-though-he-didnt.shtml  One of a number of solid Techdirt posts debunking Ayyadurai, this one dealing with the 2014 effort to push a misleading “History of Email” series focused exclusively on Ayyadurai.

·               https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=shiva+ayyadurai.Other Techdirt posts from this link, including one quoting me: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140903/18514728409/huffington-post-finally-responds-stands-its-completely-bogus-totally-debunked-history-email-series.shtml 

·               https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/omblog/post/origins-of-e-mail-my-mea-culpa/2012/03/01/gIQAiOD5kR_blog.html  Washington Post ombudsman admitting that the story was unfounded

·               http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/HistoriesOfTheInternetDRAFT.pdf  Introduction to special issue of I&C on Internet History in which we mention Ayyadurai’s case as an example of an attempt to fill in the gap between people’s ordinary experience and the ARPANET story. Example of a way to acknowledge appeal of the Ayyadurai narrative without endorsing its claims.

 

Resources on the actual history of email include

 

*         Janet Abbate’s Inventing the Internet

*         Craig Partridge’s Annals paper, “The Technical Development of Internet Email.” This is the best overview of the actual development of modern email. 

*         My chapter in The Internet and American Business has some material on non-Internet email and how it was eventually assimilated: http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ProtocolsForProfitDRAFT.pdf.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom

 

From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Christine Finn
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2017 9:09 AM
To: David Golumbia <dgolumbia at gmail.com>
Cc: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Shiva/Gawker, also AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH

 

I'd be happy to help with this. If we can craft something I'd be pleased to help reach a wider audience. I am already in touch with the UK Sunday Times - I contribute to them - and can make time to help with this, I don't have the tech expertise you all have, but can tell the story for the general public.

all best

Christine 

 

On 5 January 2017 at 09:56, David Golumbia <dgolumbia at gmail.com <mailto:dgolumbia at gmail.com> > wrote:

 

 

"This is a historic victory for truth," declared Dr. Ayyadurai. "Americans have no tolerance for fake news, lies

 

i mean, it's by far not the most offensive part of this story, but this statement leapt out at me--you coulda fooled me, and PT Barnum, and every "reality show" producer, and Facebook, and, and...


 

-- 

David Golumbia
dgolumbia at gmail.com <mailto:dgolumbia at gmail.com> 


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