Electronic mail, or the sending of messages via computer, was the very first application for networked computers. Invented in 1971, electronic mail, or email as it is commonly called, was the offspring of a project started in 1969 by the U.S. Department of Defense. This project was designed to connect vital organizations together in case of any normal communications failure. The Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA, used telephone lines to link the computers of defense contractors, university researchers, and military personnel. This "network" of computers was called ARPANET. ARPANET slowly grew and grew to become the Internet. The application these scientists developed to communicate with each other was email.
The technology behind email has changed little since its invention. The content on the other hand is radically different. In the early years of email, transmissions were limited to small squibs of text that could be sent quickly between two computers. With today's computer technology, entire multimedia presentations can be sent to your next-door neighbor, or someone around the globe, with little difficulty.
In order to utilize email, one must be connected to a computer network like the Internet. Once connected, you are assigned a uniquely identifying user name. This name, in conjunction with the name of the network you are using, is called an email address. This is analogous to your own home address. It uniquely identifies you within the system. Email addresses are in the form of username@networkname. An example of a real-world email address is prez@whitehouse.gov. This is the email address of the President of the United States. In this example, prez is the user name and whitehouse.gov is the network name. These are separated by the "at" character. This address can be used to send and receive email from almost anywhere in the entire world. The use of email is so widespread in America that the U.S. Postal Service in 1997 began testing electronic postmarks and email storage services.
Email has become the communication method of choice within the corporate world. This has allowed for better communication between employers and employees. In addition, email has drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to relay business and personal information between two parties. It has become one of the most widely used computer applications on the planet. However, this ease of communication has found its way into many households. What once was just available to larger businesses, universities, and governments, now allows your grandmother to receive birthday pictures of your child over her computer.
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