[ih] X.400 (Re: Any suggestions for first uses of "e-mail" or "email"?

[Dave Crocker]

> and I think the efforts that led to ISO MHS/ ITU X.400 must have
> started before the end of the decade.  

Pre-standards work for X.400 began in 1978, through IFIP Working Group
6.5.  That's where the UA/MTA conceptual split was developed, based on
the design of 4 existing systems.

The CCITT X.MHS effort (X.400) started in 1980, with the first
publication in 1984.  It was notable for high ambitious and complexity,
but insufficient functionality to be directly useful.  It was also
notable for an addressing scheme that required specifying who your
'carrier' was (ADMD).  Business cards with X.400 addresses, for folk at
large companies, would show a list of several different ADMD operators.


> Both are signs of interest and
> activity by non-specialists 

Not sure what this means.  Quite a number of folk involved with the
specification of X.400 had quite a bit of email-related experience.

>

> but the important point is precisely the one you are making: there
> were many computer-based messaging activities in progress or under
> discussion by the end of that decade and almost any of them could have
> spawned press coverage or other informal treatment that could have, in
> turn, generated new terminology.

Yup.


d/


-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net