E-mail, timesharing, and social computing: the beginnings

["N.N. Thayer" <nnthayer@hotmail.com>]

Although this isn't strictly Apple II related, I'm posting it here
because this is one of the few places where I think it would have a
receptive audience.

Documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War,
Standard Operating Procedure) has posted a wonderful five-part series
on the genesis of e-mail, timesharing, and social computing, and his
deceased brother's role in it all:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/did-my-brother-invent-e-mail-with-tom-van-vleck-part-one/

(Scroll to the bottom for links to the other parts.)  Because it's
Errol Morris, it's not just a chronicle of events, but a meticulously
researched portrait, of both his brother and a time in computing when
the barest outlines of user independence and user culture were
beginning to form in the depths of stuffy bureaucracies.

I'm delighted to see his brand of attention being given to an era
that's far enough removed from me so as to be fascinatingly alien and
virtually impossible to discuss with most people I know.

Oh, and the Apple II *does* get a passing mention.  :)