https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET: "In 1971, Ray Tomlinson, of BBN sent the first network e-mail (RFC 524, RFC 561). By 1973, e-mail constituted 75% of the ARPANET traffic.[9][84]" There are two citations, so straight a "citation needed" flag might not convince people. However one is to a Ray Tomlinson page that does not include the figure. The other is to a book chapter by communications scholar Leah A. Lievrouw, but the page pointed to by the link doesn't seem to include the figure either. (That page does cite the Ceruzzi history we're working to revise). So the two references go with the first sentence of the short paragraph, not the second which is unsourced. A better general citation for the creation and rapid adoption of Internet email would actually be pages 106-111 of Abbate. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Alexandre Hocquet Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 5:54 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Was email really already 75% of ARPANET traffic by 1973? On 7/29/20 11:18 PM, Win Treese wrote:
On Jul 29, 2020, at 4:22 PM, <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote: […]
The figure is also in Wikipedia, without a real source, so I'm acutely aware that it's one of those factoids that historians and journalists will find somewhere like Wikipedia or the Hobbes Timeline and then copy, thus creating a "reliable source" that Wikipedia can then cite to support the information. It's like a time paradox.
Of course, there’s an XKCD for that: https://xkcd.com/978/.
If we know which Wikipedia article exactly, the best thing to do would be to add a [[citation needed]] flag, or even better, to link to this SIGCIS thread in the artcile talk page with a short explanation. If you point me to the article, I can do that as a contribution to restore XKCD's faith in Wikipedia :) -- *********************************************** Alexandre Hocquet Archives Henri Poincaré & Science History Institute Alexandre.Hocquet@univ-lorraine.fr https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/alexandre-hocquet https://poincare.univ-lorraine.fr/fr/membre-titulaire/alexandre-hocquet *********************************************** _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org