“History
of the Internet”
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and
communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph,
telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration
of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability,
a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and
interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for
geographic location. The Internet represents one of the most successful
examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and
development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in
packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in
evolving and deploying this exciting new technology. There is the operations and management aspect of a global and
complex operational infrastructure. There is the social aspect, which resulted
in a broad community of Internauts working together to create and evolve the technology.
And there is the commercialization aspect, resulting in an extremely effective
transition of research results into a broadly deployed and available
information infrastructure. He Internet today is a widespread information
infrastructure, the initial prototype of what is often called the National (or
Global or Galactic) Information Infrastructure. Its history is complex and
involves many aspects - technological, organizational, and community. And its
influence reaches not only to the technical fields of computer communications
but throughout society as we move toward increasing use of online tools to
accomplish electronic commerce, information acquisition, and community
operations. The first recorded description of the social
interactions that could be enabled through networking was a series of
memos written by
J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in August 1962 discussing his "Galactic
Network" concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers
through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site. In
spirit, the concept was very much like the Internet of today.
