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Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO, Inventor of LISTSERV
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/></td> </tr> </table> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div id="incontent" onMouseOver="closeAllMenus()"> <div class="container"> <div id="inmainarea"> <div class="padding"> <div id="breadcrumbs"> <p class="breadcrumbs"><a href="corporate.asp">Corporate</a> > <a href="management.asp">L-Soft Management Bios</a> > <a href="/corporate/ericthomas.asp">Eric Thomas</a></p><hr /> </div> <h1>Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO, Inventor of LISTSERV</h1> <div class="toc"> <img src="../images/bio_ethomas.png" alt="Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO, Inventor of LISTSERV" title="Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO, Inventor of LISTSERV" class="image-right hide-xs" /> <p class="toc"><a href="#1">Introduction</a><br /><a href="#2">Eric Thomas' Vision About Email</a><br /><a href="#3">Speeches and Presentations by Eric Thomas</a><br /><a href="#4">Quotes from Eric Thomas</a><br /><a href="#5">Articles by Eric Thomas</a><br /><a href="#6">Eric Thomas in the Press</a><br /><a href="ericthomas_cv.asp">Eric Thomas' CV</a></p> </div> <h3><a name="1" class="anchor"></a>Introduction</h3> <p>Eric Thomas is one of the few true pioneers in Internet technology. In 1986, Eric invented LISTSERV, the first email list management program, representing a major milestone in Internet history. Eric originally created LISTSERV while he was a university student, effectively launching the email list communication industry. In 1994, Eric started <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span>, for which he serves as CEO.</p> <p><b>From an idea ...</b></p> <img src="../images/ericthomas_ecp.gif" alt="Eric Thomas invented LISTSERV at 脡cole Centrale Paris" title="Eric Thomas invented LISTSERV at 脡cole Centrale Paris" class="image-right hide-xs" /> <p>In 1985, a university student named Eric Thomas discovered a new passion: the Internet. Since then, he has played an active role in the development of the Internet. In 1986, Eric invented LISTSERV in Paris, France. LISTSERV was the first email list management software – the only program to automate email list distribution. At that time, Europe and the United States were connected by two links with a capacity of 9.6 kbps each, and it could take days for email to reach across the Atlantic Ocean.</p> <p>Eric graduated in 1988 and moved to CERN in Switzerland (where the World Wide Web was invented). He then moved to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1990, where he was hired to build a computer network by SUNET, whose ambition was to make Sweden the leading IT nation in Europe in spite of the country's small size (8 million inhabitants).</p> <p><b>... to a lasting reality</b></p> <p>Three decades have passed since Eric invented LISTSERV – beginning the email list management industry in the process – and today LISTSERV continues to set the industry standard. To say that technology has progressed greatly since the industry began in 1986 is an understatement.</p> <img src="../images/ericthomas_listserv.gif" alt="Eric Thomas' LISTSERV continues to set the industry standard" title="Eric Thomas' LISTSERV continues to set the industry standard" class="image-left hide-xs" /> <p>Today we expect large attachments and digital photographs to reach the receiver in a few seconds. We worry about phishing, email authentication, deliverability and spam filters. We debate best practices to make email more relevant and targeted. Email continues to evolve and become more complex. In fact, email has become an integral part of business, government and life in general, and it remains the most popular Internet activity. Who would have thought back in 1986 that Eric's software would handle more than 100 million email list subscriptions today?</p> <p>In the '90s, Eric founded <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span>; today, he continues to serve as an expert in the development and policy of email list technology.</p> <p>If you want to learn more about Eric Thomas' invention of LISTSERV and the history of <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span>, check out the following links:</p> <p>History of LISTSERV:<br /><a href="history-listserv.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/history-listserv.asp</a></p> <p>More on Early History of LISTSERV:<br /><a href="../products/listserv-history.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv-history.asp</a></p> <p>History of L-Soft:<br /><a href="history-lsoft.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/history-lsoft.asp</a></p> <p>Eric Thomas' CV:<br /><a href="ericthomas_cv.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/ericthomas_cv.asp</a></p> <p>Short Clip of 17-Year-Old Eric Thomas on French TV:<br /><a href="http://www.lsoft.se/se/videos/De-Closets-mini-intro.wmv" target="_blank">http://www.lsoft.se/se/videos/De-Closets-mini-intro.wmv</a></p> <p>LISTSERV Site Administrators' Forum:<br />(First and oldest LISTSERV email list, with archives dating back to 1986)<br /><a href="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LSTSRV-L" target="_blank">http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LSTSRV-L</a></p> <p>Slide Show: The LISTSERV Story:<br /><a href="../news/listserv25story.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/news/listserv25story.asp</a></p> <p>Slide Show: The LISTSERV 25th Anniversary Tour:<br /><a href="../news/listserv25tour.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/news/listserv25tour.asp</a></p> <br /> <h3><a name="2" class="anchor"></a>Eric Thomas' Vision About Email</h3> <p>L-Soft Founder and CEO Eric Thomas, who began the email list communication industry in 1986 with the invention of LISTSERV, shares his reflections, visions and musings.</p> <p>LISTSERV at Work (LISTSERV 20th Anniversary Issue):<br /><a href="../news/qa-issue2-2006-us.asp" target="_blank">http://www.lsoft.com/news/qa-issue2-2006-us.asp</a></p> <p>LISTSERV 25th Anniversary – Inventor Reflections: Past, Present & Future<br /><a href="http://youtu.be/4dDIIDEKsw0" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/4dDIIDEKsw0</a></p> <p>Online Chat with Eric Thomas, the LISTSERV inventor<br /><a href="../chat/livechat.asp">http://www.lsoft.com/chat/livechat.asp</a></p> <br /> <h3><a name="3" class="anchor"></a>Speeches and Presentations by Eric Thomas</h3> <p>Eric Thomas has spoken at numerous conferences, trade shows and events. Selected presentations include:</p> <p><a href="../news/issue1-2007/epostvisioner07_et.pdf" target="_blank">E-post ig氓r, idag och imorgon: m枚jligheter och visioner (Swedish)</a><br />Email Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Opportunities and Visions<br /><b>E-postmarknadsf枚ring 2.0, Guest Speaker, February 22, 2007</b><br />Stockholm, Sweden</p> <p><a href="../news/issue4-2006/ericthomas-en.pdf" target="_blank">Future Approaches to Stop Spam: Certification Services for Everyone (English)</a><br /><b>The Internet Days (Internetdagarna), October 24, 2006</b><br />Stockholm, Sweden</p> <p>AOL: You Have Certified Mail! Will Paid E-mail Lead to Separate, Unequal Systems or is it the Foolproof Answer to Spam?<br /><b>Public Hearing: The California Senate Select Committee on E-Commerce, Wireless Technology and Consumer-Driven Programming, April 3, 2006</b><br />Sacramento, USA</p> <p><a href="http://www.lsoft.se/SE/IP2003ET-EN.ppt" target="_blank">Freeing the Internet from Spam – Opt-In, Filtering and Other Approaches</a><br /><b>IP-Dagarna, November 19, 2003</b><br />Stockholm, Sweden</p> <p>The Evolution of E-Mail<br /><b>IP-dagarna, Keynote, November 19, 2002</b><br />Stockholm, Sweden</p> <p>IT Issues: New Frontiers in E-mail Communication: LISTSERV & Beyond<br /><b>IBM SHARE, July 25, 2001</b><br />Minneapolis, USA</p> <p>The WWW as a Generic Tool Interface – Users' and Programmers' Ideas<br /><b>TERENA-NORDUnet Networking Conference, June 9, 1999</b><br />Lund, Sweden</p> <p>LISTSERV for the non-technical user<br /><b>The Network Services Conference, October 13, 1993</b><br />Warsaw, Poland<br /><br />Organized by EARN in conjunction with EUnet/EurOpen, NORDUnet, RARE, and RIPE.</p> <br /> <h3><a name="4" class="anchor"></a>Quotes from Eric Thomas</h3> <p class="quote">"LISTSERV started in 1986 as a weekend project to improve the usefulness of mailing lists. I had no idea at the time that there would be so much interest from so many people, let alone that I would still be improving LISTSERV 20 years later."</p> <p class="quote">"My goal was simply to create a tool that would allow mailing lists to prosper while making life easier for subscribers and list owners. It was a simple idea whose success exceeded all my expectations. Sometimes you set about solving a small problem, and later on you realize that you have actually solved a big problem."</p> <p class="quote">"I had no idea in 1986 that LISTSERV would end up playing such an important role in people's lives, in some cases even saving lives. ACOR (Association of Cancer Online Resources) is the most dramatic example – you have people with a problem and they form a list to talk to each other. They're not doctors, but they connect with each other and with researchers running clinical trials. When you see something like that, it's amazing."</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas about LISTSERV's 20th anniversary in 2006</p> <br /><hr /><br /> <p class="quote">"I am always amazed by the creativity and ingenuity of LISTSERV users. Who would have thought that LISTSERV lists would be used to help cure cancer, find lost dogs or solve crimes?"</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas about email lists (LISTSERV Choice Awards 2004)</p> <br /><hr /><br /> <p class="quote">"We wanted virus writers to know that they will not succeed in changing the way people use email. Mailing lists are and will remain an effective, time-saving communication tool."</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas about LISTSERV's built-in virus protection in 2001</p> <br /><hr /><br /> <p class="quote">"We have come a long way since I flew to the U.S. and founded <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span> with three thousand dollars and a laptop. We owe our success to the reliability and scalability of our offerings, and to our corporate culture that promotes diversity and encourages employees to develop to their fullest potential."</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas in 2000 when Deloitte & Touche honored <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span> with its Maryland Technology Fast 50 Award</p> <br /><hr /><br /> <p class="quote">"As a student, it can be very difficult to get support or funding for your ideas. When I was in college, I was fortunate enough to be offered free access to an IBM mainframe at another university, with no strings attached, and this is how LISTSERV came to be. If I hadn't had the freedom to work as I pleased or if the university had asserted ownership rights to my work, I would probably have done something else with my time. I wish more companies would extend such opportunities to students because, in the long run, it benefits everyone."</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas when <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span> earmarked donations for student organizations in 1994</p> <br /><hr /><br /> <p class="quote">"Email fulfills a fundamental human need – the need to form communities and share ideas, experiences, joy and pain. People have been doing this for as long as mankind has existed, but LISTSERV removes the barrier of physical distance."</p> <p class="quote">"Email gives you control and depth. You can decide who receives your message exactly and you can see who has acted on it. You are not at the mercy of changes in security policies on social networks. And you can write more than 400 characters."</p> <p class="quote">"I do not think email is being migrated to social tools. I think social tools complement email just like instant messaging complements both social tools and email."</p> <p class="quotesource">– Eric Thomas about email and social media in 2011</p> <br /> <h3><a name="5" class="anchor"></a>Articles by Eric Thomas</h3> <p>Eric Thomas has authored numerous articles on email communications and other technology topics. Here is a list of selected articles:</p> <p><a href="http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-opinion/editorials/35766.html" target="_blank">Dealing with Spam Is Just One of Many Costs of Doing Business</a><br /><b>DMNews.com, February 2006</b><br /><i>Eric Thomas</i></p> <p><a href="../news/optin2003/eucomments.pdf" target="_blank">EU workshop on unsolicited commercial communications or spam – Brussels, October 16, 2003</a><br /><b>L-Soft Comment Paper, October 2003</b><br /><i>Fran莽oise Becker, Eric Thomas, Outi Tuomaala</i></p> <p>Sverige – f枚rs枚kskaninen f枚r den nya ekonomin<br /><b>Computer Sweden, February 12, 2001</b><br /><i>Eric Thomas</i></p> <p><a href="../news/articles/clt-2000-07.asp" target="_blank">CRM: rising to the e-mail challenge</a><br /><b>Customer Loyalty Today, July-August 2000</b><br /><i>Eric Thomas</i></p> <p><a href="../products/listserv-history.asp">History of LISTSERV</a><br /><b>Eric Thomas, 1995</b></p> <p>The Revised List Processor (LISTSERV@FRECP11)<br /><b>NetMonth, July 1986</b><br /><i>Eric Thomas</i></p> <br /> <h3><a name="6" class="anchor"></a>Eric Thomas in the Press and Media</h3> <p>Selected articles:</p> <p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bLGYDwAAQBAJ&dq" target="_blank">Art Criticism Online: A History</a><br /><b>Gylphi Limited, 16 May 2019, p. 79</b><br /><i>Charlotte Frost</i><br /><br /><i>"The first (fully) automatic email-based discussion group software (or listserv software) was developed by programmer Eric Thomas in 1986."</i></p> <p><a href="http://ictconsulting.ch/reports/european-research-internet-history.pdf " target="_blank">The "Hidden" Prehistory of European Research Networking</a><br /><b>Oliver Martin, October 2012</b></p> <p><a href="http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-07-31/future-neighborhood-communication" target="_blank">The Future of Neighborhood Communication</a><br /><b>The Kojo Nnamdi Show, Tech Tuesday, July 31, 2012</b><br /><i>Kojo Nnamdi, Jennifer Golbeck, Maria Thomas, Eric Thomas</i></p> <p><a href="http://readwrite.com/2011/09/09/l-softs-listserv-is-25" target="_blank">L-Soft's LISTSERV is 25!</a><br /><b>ReadWriteWeb, September 9, 2011</b><br /><i>David Strom</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.saltywaffle.com/the-fathers-of-social-media/" target="_blank">The Fathers Of Social Media</a><br /><b>Salty Waffle, June 19, 2011</b><br /><i>Mitchell Cuevas</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1752602/email-everywhere-25th-anniversary-listserv" target="_blank">Email Everywhere: 25th Anniversary Of LISTSERV</a><br /><b>Fast Company, May 18, 2011</b><br /><i>Rachel Z. Arndt</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2011/011211-geekiest-anniversaries-buzzblog.html#slide9" target="_blank">2011's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries</a><br /><b>Network World, Buzzblog, January 12, 2011</b><br /><i>Paul McNamara</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/08/the_joy_of_listservs.html" target="_blank">The Joy of Listservs: One of the Internet's earliest innovations is still one of its best</a><br /><b>Slate, August 5, 2010</b><br /><i>Farhad Manjoo</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/26007/mailing-lists-listes-diffusion" target="_blank">Plaidoyer pour la r茅habilitation des mailing lists: Ringardis茅e, la bonne vieille liste de diffusion reste indispensable</a><br /><b>Slate, August 14, 2010</b><br /><i>Farhad Manjoo</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.francofil.se/nouvelle/francofilentreprise/francofilentrepfr%2005-2004.htm" target="_blank">L-Soft facilite la communication par e-mail</a><br /><b>Francofil, May 2004</b></p> <p><a href="http://www.isoc.se/images/stories/de_byggde_internet.pdf" target="_blank">De byggde Internet i Sverige</a><br /><b>The Swedish Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-SE), 2003</b><br /><i>Inga Hamngren, Jan Odhnoff</i></p> <p><a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/10/30/fsecure.email.idg/index.html" target="_blank">E-mail lists get virus protection</a><br /><b>CNN.com/SCI-TECH, October 30, 2001</b><br /><i>Sam Costello</i></p> <p><a href="http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/an/&toc=comp/mags/an/2000/02/a2toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/85.841135" target="_blank">A Social History of Bitnet and Listserv, 1985-1991</a><br /><b>The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, April-June 2000 (Vol. 22, No. 2) pp. 32-41</b><br /><i>David Alan Grier, Mary Campbell</i></p> <p><a href="../news/articles/dagensit-1999-10.asp" target="_blank">Succ茅n som Sverige nobbade</a><br /><b>Dagens IT/Datateknik 3.0, October 1999</b><br /><i>Jesper Hultqvist</i></p> <p><a href="../news/articles/hesari-1999-10.asp" target="_blank">Lista postittaa viestit maailmalle</a><br /><b>Helsingin Sanomat, October 8, 1999</b><br /><i>Riitta Hankonen</i></p> <p><a href="http://tech2.nytimes.com/mem/technology/techreview.html?res=9B07E6D71430F937A25756C0A96E958260" target="_blank">A Family Links Up, But United We Fall</a><br /><b>New York Times, May 14, 1998</b><br /><i>Michelle Slatalla</i></p> <br /> <hr /> <p class="boilerplate"><a href="/corporate/legal.asp">LISTSERV is a registered trademark</a> licensed to <span class="nowrap">L-Soft</span> international, Inc.</p> <p class="boilerplate">See <a href="/corporate/trademark.asp">Guidelines for Proper Usage of the LISTSERV Trademark</a> for more details.</p> <p class="boilerplate">All other trademarks, both marked and unmarked, are the property of their respective owners.</p> <br /> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-3167554-2"></script> <script> 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