THE EMAIL Lab | What is EMAIL?

what is email?

Email is the electronic version of the interoffice paper mail system. Email is not simply the exchange of text messages. What we know today as “email” is therefore really a system --- a system of interlocking parts, each of which is essential for ordinary people to communicate effectively with one or many others, in an environment where different kinds of information must be shared (memos, documents, files, etc.) i.e. the modern office environment.

Many people over the age of 40 will remember the interoffice paper mail system, which was the basis of how offices around the world operated, from the level of secretaries to CEOs. The interoffice mail system had the following interlocked parts (as detailed in Table 1 below), which are the now-familiar components of email: Inbox, the Memo (“To:”, “From:”, “Date:”, “Subject:”, “Body:”, “Cc:”, “Bcc:”), Forwarding, Composing, Drafts, Edit, Reply, Delete, Priorities, Outbox, Folders, Archive, Attachments, Return Receipt, Carbon Copies (including Blind Carbon Copies), Sorting, Address Book, Groups, Bulk Distribution. This system was not only used within offices but also for communication between different organizations.

TABLE 1
The System of Interlocking Parts of the Interoffice, Inter-organizational
Paper Mail System as Observed by V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai at UMDNJ in 1978

Part Name	Part Description
Inbox	This was the physical inbox where a secretary received incoming documents. It was usually made of wood, metal or plastic. The courier or “office boy” or “mailroom clerk” would deliver documents — postal mail or internal memos came to the Inbox regularly, such as twice per day.
Memo	This was typically a piece of 8½ by 11-inch piece of BOND paper. The top of the Memo had the words ‘++++++ MEMORANDUM ++++++’ written on it. Below that were the following areas: ‘To:’, ‘From:’, ‘Date:’, ‘Subject:’, ‘Body:’, ‘Cc:’, ‘Bcc:’ (only for view in the sender's original), and an indication with ‘Encl.:’, if attachment(s) were included
Sending Memo to Individual	Memo to an individual meant that the ‘To:’ field had only the name of one recipient.
Scanning Mail	Scanning mail was the process of quickly reading the envelope or top portion of a memo, such as the ‘From:’, ‘Subject:’, lines to get an idea of which memo to read first, to put for later review, or sometimes to discard altogether.
Forwardning (or Redistribution)	A person receiving and reviewing an incoming memo could forward or re-distribute it to others. Forwarding literally involved adding a list of other people to review the memo. Sometimes the forward list was just paper-clipped on the received memo.
Forwarding with RETURN RECEIPT Requested (or registered memo)	This was an important feature of the office. Sometimes, an important letter, say from a Director, would be received by a Manager, and that Manager wanted certain employees in his group to read it and make sure that they did in fact read it. So forwarding with return receipt, enabled the Manager to know exactly who got and who did not get the memo.
Composing Memo	A new memo was typically composed on a typewriter. Sometimes whiteout (a white liquid or white paper) was use to erase mistakes.
Drafts	A memo sometimes was saved for review prior to sending. A secretary or another person would write the memo and put in a Drafts folder, which a superior would review and provide ‘red-line’ feedback in the Drafts folder.
Editing	A memo sometimes would be edited after it was composed. Editing could be iterative based on the feedback received.
Outbox	This was a physical box of metal, wood, or plastic, for memos that were composed and edited, ready for sending to its recipients. The courier or “office boy” or “mailroom clerk” would come and pick up the mail from the Outbox regularly, sometimes twice per day.
Replying	Sometimes instead of writing a new memo, an employee replied to a memo received in the Inbox. The memo that was being responded to would be attached.
Broadcast Memo	Sometimes a memo would need to be sent to multiple recipients, not just one individual. This meant having multiple names of recipients in the ‘To:’ field. This was a complicated process, since copies had to be made — carbon copies on a typewriter. A ‘check’ mark was put next to each copy's intended recipient, so the envelope would be addressed correctly.
Sending Memo to Group	In a large organization, within and across facilities, as at UMDNJ, there were different faculty departments: Pharmacology, Surgery, etc., and one may want to send a memo to a Group. Again, copies were made, and an Address Book used for a secretary to correctly address each envelope.
Deleting	Sometimes a memo would be thrown into a trash folder for disposal.
Purging	The contents of trash folders, by request, would collected and permanently destroyed.
Address Book	Every office had an address book, which listed each person's first and last names, campus location, group (e.g. surgery, pharmacology), room number and phone number.
Updating Address Book	Address books were updated as employees came and left UMDNJ. New people were added, and those who had left were removed. Sometimes a circular was sent out which was the update to the existing Address Book, and one would have to manually insert the changes.
Prioritization	When mail was left in the Inbox, it sometimes was sorted based on some priority, and so marked.
Archiving	Memos to be kept were often put into an archive file cabinet and organized for long–term record keeping.
Carbon Copies	A secretary would typically place dark blue carbon paper between two Bond pieces of white paper and roll them into the typewriter, to create copies. The Bond paper on top was the original, the ones below was ‘Carbon Copy’ or CC. Sometimes, several Carbons were used, and sometimes if the CC list was long, the original would be mimeographed on a mimeograph machine. Then the original To: recipient would get the original, and each person on the CC list would get copies. This got more complicated if there were multiple recipients or a Group in the To: field.
Blind Carbon Copies	A Bcc list, in the header of the memo, was kept by the Sender ONLY, and others who got Carbon copies did not see the one with the BCC list. So only the sender knew who was on the Bcc list.
Groups	At UMDNJ, different groups were at different locations, such as Surgery, Pharmacology, ICU, IT. Each location had different people in different groups.
Registerd Memo	In the hospital environment, this was a very important feature, because certain memos had to be acknowledged as received. A Memo could be flagged as a ‘Registered Memo,’ this would mean that it was treated differently for instance, the delivery person could put it in a different color envelope and ensured that recipient signed for it.
Return Receipt	This was a formal receipt that a delivery person would make sure got signed by the recipient who had been sent a registered memo. This return receipt would then have to get sent back to the original sender.
Undeliverable Notification	Sometimes a memo could not be delivered even after many Retries. In this case the delivery person would take the memo back to the sender with a note on it saying ‘undeliverable’.
Retries	All mail had to be delivered, or a real effort made to keep trying before being deemed undeliverable. This meant policy of ‘retries’ as many as 3 to 5 times, before the attempts stopped. The number of retries was a policy decision.
Securing Delivery	All mail had to be securely delivered. This meant that only the designated recipient had to get it. Typically this was ensured, as the delivery person knew who was who and knew the secretaries. Moreover, most memos were put in an individual sealed envelope, with a string closure or taped.
Attachments	A memo could have attachments or enclosures such as another file folder, another document, a drawing or a photograph, or even a parcel.
Transporting	All mail needed to be transported. At UMDNJ, there were many ways of transport. The delivery person could physically pick up and deliver from local office to office. Another forms of transport were pneumatic tubes forming a system on train-track-like rails. Mail among different buildings and campuses was transported by cars or trucks.
Sorting	Different locations had mail sorting facilities, where the mail would come in, be sorted by groups, departments, locations, zipcode, office numbers, so the delivery was easier.

V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai was the first to conceive and develop the electronic version of the interoffice paper mail system which he called “EMAIL”, after observing the paper mail system used in UMDNJ in 1978. Table 1 summarizes his observations. If you take away any one component, such as the ability to attach other materials or the use of Folders or the ability to send Carbon Copies, your ability to function with co-workers is greatly impaired.