Internet Technologies and Communications Software: Emailing and Its History

The internet and the ways we communicate with one another are closely intertwined. Every email you send out, every Instant Message you reply to, and every online call you make combines internet technologies and communication. Here, we will discuss emailing and how this form of telecommunication, which has become an integral part of our lives, came to be.

Defining a Technology: What is Email?

Electronic mail, more popularly known as Email, is a method of communication that involves the exchange of digital messages over the internet. It is based on a store-and-forward protocol. With this protocol, servers accept data, forward it, and later deliver it to the intended receiver.
Originally email was transmitted directly from one users device to another without an intermediary. This meant that both users had to be online at the same time. Today, emails can be received both online and offline.

How It Came To Be

Less than have a century ago, only a few people knew what the internet was. They knew even less about email. What people don’t realize is that an early form of the email we known today actually predates the internet. It was first demonstrated with MITs Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS). This allowed users who were log on to the same host mainframe to communicate with each other. This was during the early to mid-1960s.

Emailing later on evolved to make use of Host Based Systems and LAN based mailing systems. One important contributor that led to the further development of emailing systems was ARPANET Mail. It was also with ARPANET that ‘@’ was used to separate the username with the server’s address.

The Components that Make It Up

Email is generally made up of 2 components. These components include the message header and the body. The header contains some control information including the sender’s own email address, the receivers address, and other data including those in the CC or the BCC fields. The body is the portion that carries the actual message.

Originally, emails were only made to carry text only data. Later, it was made possible for emails to attach certain documents. These documents can also be sent together with the email body and the header.