More Harvard Facebook prehistory

Spurred by the interest of some journalists and bloggers (see The Alternate Reality Facebook that Almost Happened), I did some more digging in my email archives to see if I could document the path from the earliest electronic face books at Harvard to early 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg took matters into his own hands. I come away with a general feeling that whether or not Facebook was "invented" by any of the three Harvard claimants (the Winklevosses and Aaron Greenspan as well as Zuckerberg), it emerged in a sort of technological inevitability, assisted by Harvard's shortsightedness.Physical "facebooks" had been around Harvard since forever, not just for the Houses but for departments. The first reference I can find to moving a facebook online is from 1994 and his here reproduced in its entirety.From: gwertzma@huscSubject: Re: facebookDate: February 13, 1994 6:46:56 PM ESTTo: lewis@das (Harry Lewis)Hey.. Don't know if I answered this already. Right now the images  ARE available outside Harvard, but noone knows about them yet. I  am looking into ways to make the facebook only accessible within Harvard.--         James Gwertzman    :     No neat quote.gwertzma@husc.harvard.edu    :     For that you'll have to read my plan. That's exactly 18 years ago. Clearly it was sent in response to a query from me, presumably of something we had discussed in person, Alas, I don't have my half of the exchange, or any direct followup.I hope James Gwertzman won't mind receiving the credit here. At the time he was an undergraduate concentrating in computer science, and a trusted colleague on the Information Technology committee. Subsequent emails make clear that what he is referring to here is creating a face book for both students and faculty of what was then called the Division of Applied Sciences (now the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), of which Computer Science is a part. There are followup emails, on which I am copied, between him and administrators responsible for the ID photos and the list of faculty email addresses.It is clear even from this first message that policy issues were being confronted. Followup emails dealt with a data leak resulting from the fact that the photos had Harvard ID numbers (which are not supposed to be public) in their file names, and whether any faculty members would object to having their email addresses made public. A response James got from one administrator gives the tenor: "Yes, we can release them to you.  However, some questions have been raised about proper use of the images.  My supervisor has drawn up a standardized form …" A few weeks later, James was in correspondence with the Admissions Office about getting its view book online. In April 1994 he circulated a concrete proposal. Here is some of what he offered:Admissions Department Internet ProposalAs the number of high schools connected to the internet increases, it becomes increasingly important for Harvard Admissions to display an active internet presence. The reasons for this include: o Attracting the student who might otherwise believe Harvard is backward technologically. o Showing that the myth about Harvard doing everything several years after other schools is false. o Taking advantage of this new medium to recruit in areas not usually covered by traditional guides (Alaska for example has one of the best high school connectivity rates) o Providing a very cost effective way of attracting foreign students.James goes on to suggest some concrete steps, such as making the email address of the Admissions Office widely available, and this gem:3. Create a simple page about Harvard on the World Wide Web, a multimedia tool for accessing the internet that is rapidly becoming the predominant means of accessing resources on the internet for many people. Include links to other Harvard on-line resources such as the course catalog and any departments with pages, such as the Division of Applied Sciences, and the Biology department. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it! Remember, this is not only pre-Web 2.0, that is, before the time where people could easily modify each other's web pages. It is barely Web 1.0. The I/T professional from the Admissions Office included in his response to James and me some correspondence he had just received from colleagues at the University of California, including this priceless quote: "It turns out that gopher is now old technolgy!!! You need to do some reading about Mosaic …."I do not remember whether the DAS face book ever went live. James, however, has gone on to great things. After some years at Microsoft he went to Popcap games, recently acquired by Electronic Arts. He now manages their China operations. A good guy and a visionary both.In the August 1997, a student from the Harvard Computer Society put forward a fairly long proposal about creating an online facebo