From mail.msen.com!emv Tue Jan 25 14:45:36 1994
To: Stef@nma.com
cc: kmh@well.sf.ca.us, Edward Vielmetti <emv@msen.com>
Subject: Re: I suggest looking at the MsgGroup Archives. 
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 14:45:27 EST
From: emv@mail.msen.com

Hi Stef, Katie.  I would second Stef's recommendation of the MsgGroup
archives as a good source of original materials for research.  There
are copies of it on
	ftp.wustl.edu:/mirrors/archives/msggroup
and I have a full set of them here at Msen if you have a convenient
place for me to FTP them all to.

I believe that the "first really huge flame fest" is the 'finger'
debate, which centers around some things that Mike Schwartz posted lo
these many years ago.  There are all sorts of other gems in the
collection, lots of good stuff from the late 70s (including a gem of
a early unsolicited e-mail advertising from DEC that touched off some
reactions).

--Ed
  
  "Edward Vielmetti" <emv@msen.com> very kindly put them up on the
  Interent in either goler or wais or something.  I am sure he can tell
  you how to get access.
  
  MsgGroup was one of the first ARPAnet mailign lists to be established
  and then automated.  It started in 1975, and stopped in 1986.
  
  It disucssed every imaginable issue related to EMail as it was
  possible to imagine during that time.  
  
  You will find much of the history of Internet EMail there, including
  the first really huge flamefest, and the underpinnings of the current
  EMail architectural models.
  
  I was the moderator of MsgGroup for its entire life.  Cheers...\Stef
  
  ------- Forwarded Message
  
  From: Noel Chiappa <jnc@ginger.lcs.mit.edu>
  To: big-internet@munnari.oz.au, ietf@cnri.reston.va.us
  Cc: jnc@ginger.lcs.mit.edu, kmh@well.sf.ca.us
  Subject: History of the ARPANet/Internet
  Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 12:09:29 -0500
  
  
  Katie Hafner (co-author, along with John Markoff, of "Cyberpunk", which I'm
  sure many of you have read and enjoyed) is writing a book on the history of
  the ARPANet/Internet. The publisher is to be Simon & Schuster. The general
  concept of the book is that it is for a general audience, but it will include
  enough high-level technical information to make some sense of the story.
  
  (I'd personally like to see a high-level technical history of networking, for
  the general technically inclined audience, sort of like the fabulous "NASA
  History Series", done, but that's obviously a different book.)
  
  She is interested in talking to people who can give her information on the
  early days of both networks. She already has many names, and I've given her
  many of the rest of the "usual suspects", but I'm sure it's incomplete, and in
  many cases she doesn't know how to reach people.
  
  So, people who were around in the early days, or who played a key role in the
  development of the network, and are interested in telling what they remember
  should contact her at 'kmh@well.sf.ca.us'. My guess would be that for the
  ARPANet, the "early days" would be before 1972 or so, and for the Internet,
  before 1980, but older (and wiser :-) heads may improve these guesses.
  
  	Noel
  
  ------- End of Forwarded Message