tUNC Email Explosion 1994

From the archives of Speed Hallman. The same day a story ran in the Daily Tar Heel about a new course in “Cyberpublishing and Cybercasting”, this chart ran as part of a story on UNC’s email explosion. It shows that the semester was beginning with a giant increase in Internet/email ids — by 1,900 raising the total UNC email space to over 14,000. Note that email and Internet confused even then.

I wonder if UNC’s ending of just over a decade of BITNET involvement was part of the cause of the increase and of the confusion. Note: UNC ceased BITNET membership on August 9, 1993 according to the Timeline of UNC Chapel Hill Computing History.

Leaving the more limited BITNET email for the more sophisticated Internet email, which had existed side-by-side with BITNET mail, was UNC’s first #noemail move.

[graph source: Daily Tar Heel, November 2, 1994]