COM 125 Week 2: Email

The invention of the email was credited to Ray Tomlinson. He was a scientist that was hired by the United States Department of Defense to develop a ‘computer network, which allowed general communication between users of various computers’, commonly known as Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET (The Invention of Email, 1998).

He wanted to be able to send a message, through the ARPANET, to the other 15 nodes, which were located all over the United States. In 1972, he decided to use the @ symbol to ensure that the message sent over the network, was received by the intended recipient. It was simply saying that the message sent was for ‘name-of-recipient@name-of-computer’ (The History of Email, 2004).

This development proved to be extremely popular. A study held found that 75% of traffic on the ARPANET was email. It was something ‘ordinary people all over the world wanted to use’ (The History of Email, 1998). With the invention of other packet switch networks such as UUCP, Usenet and ‘the first international packet switched network’ (Wikipedia, ARPANET, 2006), X.25, this meant that emails could be sent all over the world.

With the invention of the Internet and the email, globalization inevitably takes place. It is as easy to ask about the well being of a relative, half way across the world, as asking your neighbour how his day was.

The email become more than just messages sent over the Internet. From the business aspect, markets ‘that used to be limited to one country or continent’ (Online Globalization: Swim or Sink, 2000), can now be tapped into by a businessman working from the comforts of his own bedroom, in another country. Businesses, big or small, can now advertise, communicate or trade through emails and the Internet.

The email and Internet has introduced new forms of communication. It forces countries, and its people, to develop hand in hand with technology to open different forms of media to communicate (New Media & Globalization in the Internet Age). Sending messages through emails have paved the way for Instant Messaging (IM). Since its appearance in the 1970’s (Wikipedia, Instant Messaging), development of technology in IM has brought us from multi-user systems such as UNIX in the 1970’s, to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and ICQ in the 1990’s, and now, to popular IM protocols like MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger (Wikipedia, Instant Messaging). Other IM services include AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Google Talk, iChat, Jabber and Skype.

While emailing is seen as more for business use, IM is a less formal way of communication. MSN Messenger allows one peer to not only engage in a real time conversation with another peer, but also offers functions for both audio and video conferencing, online games, and an ability to transfer files of any size. Functions such as ‘emoticons’, allows an individual to personalize or inject a sense of humor into a message. And since the best form of communication is one that allows interactivity with as little time lapse as possible, IM is the closest one can get without having a conversation face to face (COM 101, Field of Communication).

Surfing the ‘world wide web’, emailing and IM does not confine an individual to a desktop. With the introduction of the mobile web, users now have an added advantage: the ability to access the world in the palm of his hand. This meant that you could be on the move, at any place in time, and would be able to check your emails, receive faxes (Wikipedia, Mobile Web), and check the latest soccer scores on the Internet via your mobile phone.

The first Internet technology to ‘cross over’ to the mobile web technology was the blog. Bloggers were able to publish an entry from their mobile phones thus, allowing readers to access the desired blogs through the mobile web. Hence the term, Moblog. The ‘first post to the Internet from an ordinary mobile device’ was by Tom Vilmer from Denmark in May 2000 (Wikipedia, Moblog).

Companies can now customize their website for mobile web use with the introduction of new website creating programs such as Macromedia’s Flash Lite. This program ‘enables the production of user interfaces customized for mobile devices’ (Wikipedia, Mobile Web).

With advances in technology of the Internet, IM and emails, access to the world is made easier, the language barrier is no longer an issue and the world is now not as big as we think.

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Reference

The Invention of the Email (1998)
Retrieved on 25th January 2007
www.econ.berkeley.edu/~bhhall/e124/e124emailinvention.pdf

The History of Email (2004)
Retrived on 25th January 2007
www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html

Advanced Research Project Agency Network.
Retrieved on 25th January 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET

Online Globalization: Swim or Sink (2000)
Retrieved on 27th January 2007
www.glreach.com/eng/ed/art/rep-eur22.php3

New Media & Globalization in the Internet Age
Retrieved on 27th January 2007
www.mevic.org/keynote.html

Instant Messaging
Retrieved on 26th January 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

Mobile Web
Retrieved on 26th January 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_web

Moblog
Retrieved on 27th January 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moblog