The first time I walked into a computer lab that was connected to the internet was September 1990 at Rutgers University.  The lab was situated in a rectangular windowless room with low ceilings. The room was outfitted with 8 computers, most were open and available.  I signed up for access and was provided with an email address, one of very few that had been issued by the university.  The idea of email fascinated me but it was challenging just the same.  My biggest challenge was there was no-one to email.  I could email the guy sitting at the terminal next to me, but no one I knew had an email address, had been on a network, or even knew either of these technologies existed.  Eventually, I learned another student I went to high school with had also created an email account at Georgia Tech.  Game on!

From these early days of email and the internet (at this time it was ARPANET) I was fascinated by electronic communication and email specifically.  Since then, there is no email service or workflow I haven’t tried out.  My friends and family occasionally complain that I have too many email addresses, despite my reassurance that “they all route to one email address”. 

What is it about email?  Well, it seems to be a cure for writers block. Since the dawn of email, it seems to only proliferate.  Writers may struggle with a black page, but no one seems to struggle with email. 

My recent email exploration has led me from Fastmail, a service I have used over the past 10-years, to Hey.com, an email service from the company that created Basecamp.  When I checked out Hey.com last year shortly after launch, it seemed incomplete.  When I came back to it in last 2021 it had addressed the issues I had  with the service at launch - and then some. 

One feature stood out, email to blog.  What a concept 30 years after I wrote my first email, a simple service to write an email to the world.  Well, this is my first email to everyone and it feels to me that I walked into something new here, let’s see where it takes us.