What was the first e-mail system like?

What was the first e-mail system like?

Tim Burress (E-mail Etiquette and Organization Specialist) gives expert video advice on: What is the history of e-mail?; How will e-mail change in the next 5 to 10 years? and more...

The very first e-mail system that emerged was in the late sixties, early seventies. It was largely not used in the corporate communications that we have today. Indeed email was used more in transmission of data from the standpoint of scientific research and documenting stuff. It wasn't used in corporate communication to pass on knowledge about a project that you were working on, and so forth. It was DOS operated, very binary in it's essence, full of zeros and ones. A lot of it took encryption to interpret it. You didn't have the space and volume in that email system that you have today. It was not really used as we see e-mail today, as a way to communicate, rather it was more of a transmission of data.