Being born in the 80’s, we were lucky enough to be able to witness the birth, and the spread of the Internet. The very first useable tool that sprouted up spreading like a wild forest fire here, mostly after the launch of hotmail.com, was email. Suddenly everyone became so accessible! Writing took another form. Telegrams, and snail mail started becoming obsolete.
Raymond Tomlinson - The Inventor of Email
Today, I look back at it all, and somehow it comes back as nothing short of beautiful art. Those strangely designed websites we thought the norm back then, cartoonish gifs that made you laugh, and wonder at the same time, BBS terminals, ICQ, gopher, home pages that were just plain old .txt files, geocities, chat bots, Mosaic, Yahoo back in the day, AltaVista, early Internet Explorer, Netscape, Lynx, the hum of the modem connecting via your landline and so much much more filled with the early Internet-human culture.
The Guest book script was so common! Geocities anyone?
We, a then friend, and I used to spend hours at the cafe on IRC using MIRC back then. Making friends, sharing emails, and meeting in those same channels day, after day. Knowledge became so very accessible, even without Wikipedia or other encyclopaedic websites back then. Our parents had invested in the entire series of World Books. I remember looking at them one day, and thinking what we would do about those books once all that information contained in those hefty volumes became available on the Internet. So much changed. It was an exiting time to say the least. Not that today is any less exciting.
Want to use Google, BBS style?
Email has been one of the biggest tools or the biggest subset tool born of the Internet. Today there are millions of people around the world using email as a form of communication, a tool for organisation, and as a transactional tool. So many of us are comfortable with email, and nothing any of the current Internet Gods do changes the way we use email today, every day.
Did you know the Home page of You've Got Mail is still online, and hasn't changed since the release of the film?
This post is about email, and how I plan on using email to reach out, share, and write more about things, and topics that generates thought, and creates intrigue. Enables a dialogue.
And this post is about introducing a personal newsletter service that would deliver well researched, thought about, and interesting content directly into your mailbox for free - once a month, every month.
Why Should You Sign Up?
- If you love email as much as I do, you should totally sign-up.
- It’s an experiment of sorts, with no heading as such. Thus any topic is game, and you would ultimately decide what happens to the newsletter in the future.
- It will be well researched. I will have a month’s time to research a topic, share my thoughts, observations, perceptions, concepts, opinions, and findings with you.
- It will be about learning, and growing. About philosophy, science, art, music, and what have you. Something that may inspire, motivate, or very well go beyond that.
- It will be a once a month affair. We’re all occupied too much for this to be more than once a month affair.
- I hate spam as much as you do. Your email will never be shared with anyone, or any party. That’s a pinky promise!
- Be the first to receive important information about my blog. Starting tomorrow.
- It’s personal, one to one communication with you.
When Does The First Issue Roll Out?
The first issue of the newsletter is scheduled for tomorrow - 23/09/2015. It’s not an article, or a post; but more of a welcome issue that includes some changes happening to this blog’o mine. And because you signed up, you do get a say on how these changes happen, or change the changes themselves if you so want to. You also get a say to what happens with this blog, and the newsletter going forward. I am very open to ideas, collaborations, guest posts, and what not. So this email will be the best way to discourse them.
What’s In It For Me? Why Am I Starting This Newsletter?
There are several reasons why this newsletter, and what I gain from it:
- For researching, and studying topics of interest. This newsletter would allow me to learn more, and share the knowledge gained.
- It would push me to experience new things, learn new stuff, and share all that with you. So in a way inspire you, but also be inspired by you before that.
- Email has also been personal. And I’d get to know you guys, you who read this blog. Maybe even share experiences, who knows?
- An experience, and an experiment of thought. Chalk that in.
- Ideally, this would also be a tool to understand different perspectives, your perspectives, and conceptions given the various topics of various interests. This would, ideally, help us both understand the subject matter greatly.
- Awareness about everything of interest. To gain knowledge, and then to be able to apply said knowledge.
- Future collaborations, partnerships, and what nots.
- Using email as a tool to make new friends, know you guys out there. Start interesting conversations.
