The start of March has been a busy one for a largely
unsung hero as Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extension protocol, or MIME for
short, celebrated its 20th anniversary and we got busy
trying to tell the world.
Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein, Chief Scientist at client Mimecast,
co-created the email format MIME 20 years ago, and in doing so,
laid the foundations for email to become the world's dominant
personal and business communication tool. Now, although most users
are completely unaware of it, MIME is used an estimated 1 trillion
times every day!
The very first attachment, sent in 1992, was an audio clip and
image (below) of Nathaniel with his fellow Telephone Chords
barbershop quartet members singing a short jingle about MIME
written to the tune of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart". Since then,
however, MIME has gone relatively under the radar despite being
used by most of us every single day, so we wanted to create a big
song and dance, and maybe a little sing song, for the anniversary
last Sunday.
To coincide with a special celebration event in New Jersey
(where the Telephone Chords reunited and sang once more), we wanted
to create buzz in the UK press, so set up three briefings with top
tier technology publications;
TechWeek Europe, The
Register and
TechRepublic UK. Nathaniel being Nathaniel was as intriguing as
ever for the press, and received several congratulations on having
pioneered such successful technology. The result was some very
detailed and extensive features detailing the history of email and
where it is heading in the future.
Attached to this (see what I did there!) and to demonstrate his
continued love of all popular communications channels, Nathaniel,
or @drmime, also
hosted a 'Twinterview' to answer burning questions about MIME, the
evolution and future of email, email's position in an increasingly
social world, and even barbershop quartets! There were some
interesting questions tweeted in Nathaniel's direction and @drmime
even picked up a load of new followers. A great week! Roll on MIME
at 30...
Georgia - @gg_hart
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