The Computer as a Communication Device

Funnily enough the first mailing list in the Arpanet (circa 1973) was about mailing lists. I have no idea why I jumped on it (freshman at the time using HARV-10), but it was loads of fun, and of course included flame wars from the start...

This was really interesting reading on the early days. Aloha net with carrier sensing grew into AX.25 amateur packet radio but the hidden transmitter problem meant throughput wouldn't exceed something like 30% (if I'm remembering Phil Karn ka9q's calculations correctly).

The human aspect of computer mediated communications is likewise fascinating. NJIT's Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz performed substantial research into the problems we still face in collaborating and communicating electronically, including issues of reputations for pseudonymous personages and anonymity and beneficial mechanisms to support them. More so they implemented it in the EIES system.

Their book "A Network Nation" remains in print and relevant. https://www.powells.com/book/network-nation-revised-edition-...

If you liked this article, then I highly recommend this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine

Unfortunately I don't have time to read this right now, but I wrote a less dense article of a similar topic that was intended as an internal training document which ended up being good blog fodder at work:

https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/how-email-became-an-important...

I have a lot of respect for the authors of the linked article (not me, the OP!) because I know how much research my own article took. I can imagine theirs was a lot more.