abstract:An electronic mailing list or email list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to its members or customers, but typically refers to four things: a list of email addresses, the people ("subscribers") receiving mail at those addresses, the publications (email messages) sent to those addresses, and a reflector, which is a single email address that, when designated as the recipient of a message, will send a copy of that message to all of the subscribers.
He published his concept on an Arpanet mailinglist in 1982 (he called his piece "Electronic Mail for People on the Move"), and went on to found RadioMail in the early 1990s -- a wireless email service (surprise, surprise).