Who invented email? Shiva Ayyadurai or Ray Tomlinson
                     WHO INVENTED EMAIL? 
SHIVA AYYADURAI OR RAY 
TOMLINSON
Introduction
A widely  accepted story of  emai l ’s  or igins  
involves a computer  engineer named Ray 
Toml inson who was working on an ear ly  vers ion 
of  the internet  in  1971.  
However,  th is  story is  disputed by a man named 
V.A.  Shiva Ayyadurai  who says he  was the one 
who invented emai l  as a teen tech prodigy in  
the  late 1970s.  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
The ARPANET story 
ARPANET (or  the Advanced Research Pro jects  
Agency Network)  was a U.S.  Defense 
Department program that ’s  credi ted with be ing 
the  foundat ion of  the  modern internet .  
I t  started as  a network of  connected computers  
and later  expanded,  thanks in  part  to support  
f rom Vice President  Al  Gore who promoted 
legis lat ion that  helped fund ARPANET.  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
The ARPANET story 
cont. 
In 1971,  Ray Toml inson was h ired to he lp 
develop ARPANET and needed a project  to work 
on.  
In a 2012 interv iew with Verge,  he  said,  
“ARPANET was very young and look ing for  
problems i t  could so lve .”  So,  Toml inson set  out  
to solve problems regarding how people were 
us ing computers to communicate.  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
The Ayyadurai story 
V.A.  Shiva Ayyadurai  has  led an interest ing l i fe .  
He holds  four  degrees f rom MIT,  founded the  
technology company Mi l lennium Cybernet ics in  
the  1990s,  authored books on the  emai l  
industry,  twice ran for  U.S.  Senate,  and was 
once romant ical ly  l inked to actress Fran 
Drescher.  
In recent  years ,  he’s  s tudied and wr i t ten about  
a l ternat ive medic ine and developed a 
reputat ion for  promot ing conspi racy theor ies.  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
The Ayyadurai story 
cont. 
Ayyadurai ’s  story stems from a summer program 
through NYU where  he was studying computer  
programming in  1978.  That  same year,  he 
volunteered at a  dental  school  in New Jersey 
where  h is  mother  worked.  At just  14 years o ld,  
Ayyadurai  developed a computer ized interoffi ce 
mai l  system for  the  school ,  which he ca l led 
“EMAIL.”
Source: www.emailonacid.com
Clashes
Clashes over  the  Toml inson and Ayyadurai  
stor ies d idn’t  erupt  unt i l  30 years later  when 
major  publ icat ions started re leasing ar t ic les  
that gave Ayyadura i  the  credit  for  invent ing 
emai l .  
Time magazine  publ ished a  Techland interv iew 
in 2011,  which was fo l lowed by a 2012 art ic le  in  
the  Washington Post .  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
Corrections and 
clarifications 
After  gett ing coverage in Time and The 
Washington Post,  people  f rom the tech industry,  
inc luding many connected to ARPANET,  d isputed 
the  idea that  the EMAIL  program was real ly  the 
beginning of  emai l  as we know i t .  This  led to 
correct ions and c lar ifi cat ions f rom both The 
Post  and the Smithsonian.  
Source: www.emailonacid.com
Evolution of Email from file 
transfer system
Ray Toml inson fi rst  deve loped the TENEX 
operat ing system which inc luded ARPANET 
network control  program and te lnet  
implementat ions.  Before the implementat ion of  
the  emai l  system, Ray wrote a fi le  t ransfer  
program ca l led CPYNET to t ransfer  fi les through 
the  ARPANET network.  
Later  he modifi ed the same program to  add 
users on the same computers which defi ned the 
fi rst  emai l  system.
Source: fossbytes.com
Ray Tomlinson, Email and 
the truth
Ray Toml inson modifi ed an ear ly  e lectronic  mai l  
program cal led SNDMSG and used that  program 
to send messages across the computer  
connected v ia ARPANET.
Source: fossbytes.com
Who Invented email?
Shiva cal l s  this  controversy a  product  o f  rac ism. 
He says,  “ I f  an Indian does great software  
coding,  Outsourc ing or  i s  the chairman of  
Microsoft ,  then that’s  cool .  But  an Indian cannot  
be an innovator.  I  am labeled a f raud.”
However,  he forgets  that Toml inson was act ive ly  
involved in  sett ing the  ear l ier  s tandards for  
emai l  in  1973,  fi ve years before  Ayyadurai .  
Here ’s  the re ference RFC 561,  in  which he and 
others  a l ready defi ned standards for  emai l  
headers .
Source: fossbytes.com