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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks Paul,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>As I noted in a comment earlier today on the latest techdirt article (<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140907/06302728447/huffington-post-finally-removes-most-articles-about-fake-email-inventor-meanwhile-ayyadurai-threatens-to-sue-his-critics.shtml#comments">https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140907/06302728447/huffington-post-finally-removes-most-articles-about-fake-email-inventor-meanwhile-ayyadurai-threatens-to-sue-his-critics.shtml#comments</a>):<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#333333'>News of Ayyadurai’s wedding seem to clear up the “why now” question raised by some commentators. Ayyadurai apparently wanted the Huffington Post and other recent stories to amplify his claims before the inevitable surge in press coverage he could count on as a participant in a celebrity wedding.<br><br>Despite the Huffington Post retractions (made on his wedding day) this strategy seems to be working. The same pattern is taking place as with the 2012 wave of stories. Enough inaccurate material stays online to help dupe the next wave of bottom-feeding bloggers. For example, Time never retracted its <a href="http://techland.time.com/2011/11/15/the-man-who-invented-email/">credulous online interview with Ayyadurai from 2011 </a>and until this afternoon the Huffington Post still has the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130901004812/http:/www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/email-invention_b_3840956.html">Chopra blog post from 2013</a> that escaped the initial purge. Those both slipped under the radar when they appeared, as did a concerted effort to write Ayyadurai into various obscure Wikipedia pages. It’s only when Ayyadurai gets high profile coverage (the 2012 print article in the Washington Post, the recent epic Huffington Post series) that anyone bothers to push back.<br><br>Celebrity gossip bloggers are doing an even worse job than personal technology bloggers of evaluating his claims. Here are a few from today’s coverage:<br><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2747398/Fran-Drescher-weds-scientist-partner-Shiva-Ayyadurai.html#ixzz3Ck0gqH32">Mail Online:</a> “The pair met early last year when Dr. Ayyadurai - who owns the patent to email and is often credited as the inventor of the electronic mail system amid some controversy - was giving a talk at an event hosted by Deepak Chopra.” <br><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fran-drescher-marries-dr-shiva-ayyadurai/">CBS News: </a>“Ayyadurai, who holds the patent for inventing email, met Drescher a year ago at an event hosted by Deepak Chopra.” <br><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fran-drescher-marries-email-inventor-shiva-ayyadurai/story?id=25344611">ABC News:</a> "Drescher married the scientist, who is widely credited with having invented email -- at their home… Ayyadurai currently teaches at MIT and was profiled in 2011 in Time magazine for being the first person to hold a copyright for ‘EMAIL’” <br><a href="http://www.people.com/article/fran-drescher-marries-shiva-ayyadura">People Magazine: </a>“Ayyadurai, 50, who holds the patent for creating email, met Drescher, 56, a little over a year ago when he gave a talk at an event hosted by Deepak Chopra, according to an interview he did with the Huffington Post.” The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/shiva-ayyadurai-fran-drescher_n_5735896.html">HP news article it links to</a> is still up, and claims that “In August 1982, the U.S. government accepted a patent for an electronic intra-office messaging system called "email" from then-teenager V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai.” <br><br>It is almost as if the whole thing is a post-modern performance art stunt designed to highlight the failings of online media. A few minutes with Google would reveal that he does not currently teach at MIT, that he was not granted a patent on email in 1982, and that he is credited as inventor of email primarily by his friends, family members, and business partners. I have updated my <a href="http://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai">online evaluation of Ayyadurai’s claims </a>with a one paragraph summary at the beginning, but do not expect it to make much difference.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Paul asked whether we are “reaching the point that the average citizen is better informed, and more interested in truth, than the average mass media reporter?” In a way, yes. However I don’t think we were dealing with mass media’s A team here. Whoever pulls together minor league celebrity surprise wedding coverage for People’s blog on a Sunday night is not going to start second guessing the press release and Twitter boasts from the happy couple. For example, People’s story is credited to Gabrielle Olya who <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleolya">according to Linked In</a> is currently employed as a freelance PR assistant with the USC School of Pharmacy as well as a “Staff Writer-Reporter” for People Magazine where her duties include “Fact-checking” and “Assist with research.” She “Loves celebs, fashion, cupcakes & trashy TV…” Nothing wrong with those things, but she’s not necessarily a reporter attuned to the difference between copyright and patents.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The errors are then syndicated and/or copied to a hundred other places. However, I do wonder if this might turn out to be another overreach by Ayyadurai. Over the next few days the story might attract actual journalists, who could find the “Guy inexplicably yet persistently pretends to have invented email, gets fake facts repeated by dozens of major media brands” angle more exciting than the “1990s sitcom star finds love” story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br>Tom<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Paul McJones<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, September 08, 2014 8:47 PM<br><b>To:</b> sigcis<br><b>Subject:</b> [SIGCIS-Members] Re Ayyadurai: Lay public more sophisticated than ABC News?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>I just googled for “Ayyadurai” and came across an ABC News story:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-left:30.0pt;margin-right:0in'><div><p class=MsoNormal>Fran Drescher Marries Email Inventor Shiva Ayyadurai<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Michael Rothman via Good Morning America<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fran-drescher-marries-email-inventor-shiva-ayyadurai/story?id=25344611">http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fran-drescher-marries-email-inventor-shiva-ayyadurai/story?id=25344611</a><o:p></o:p></p></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The amazing thing is that while the writer falls hook-line-and-sinker for Ayyadurai’s propaganda (“Drescher married the scientist, who is widely credited with having invented email -- at their home and the bride wore Badgley Mischka, People magazine reported.”), the commenters are almost uniformly very savvy, pointing out that coining the name “EMAIL” is not the same as inventing email, mentioning Ray Tomlinson, and putting the Al Gore incident into proper perspective.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Are we reaching the point that the average citizen is better informed, and more interested in truth, than the average mass media reporter?<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Paul McJones<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>