HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

[Jimoh Eyitayo]

The Internet originated in the 1960s as a means for government researchers to share information. At that time, computers were large and stationary, and accessing information from a computer required physically traveling to the computer site or sending magnetic computer tapes through the conventional postal system.

Another factor that contributed to the development of the Internet was the Cold War. The launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union prompted the U.S. Defense Department to explore ways to disseminate information following a potential nuclear attack. This led to the creation of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which ultimately evolved into the Internet. While ARPANET was successful, its membership was initially limited to specific academic and research organizations that had contracts with the Defense Department.

 

January 1, 1983, is considered the official birthdate of the Internet. Before this date, various computer networks lacked a standard communication method. A new communications protocol called Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was established, allowing different computers on different networks to communicate with each other. ARPANET and the Defense Data Network officially transitioned to the TCP/IP standard on January 1, 1983, marking the birth of the Internet, as all networks could now be connected using a universal language.

The image above depicts a scale model of the UNIVAC I, which was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951. It weighed around 16,000 pounds, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform around 1,000 calculations per second. The UNIVAC I was the first American commercial computer and the first one designed for business use.

 

The word “internet” was used as early as 1849, meaning interconnected or interwoven. The term “Internet” appeared in 1945 in a radio operator’s manual by the United States War Department, and in 1974 as the shorthand form of “Internetwork.” Today, “Internet” typically refers to the global system of interconnected computer networks, although it may also refer to any group of smaller networks.

 

When the term “Internet” came into common use, it was often treated as a capitalized proper noun, although this has become less common. This reflects the trend in English to capitalize new terms and then move them to lowercase as they become familiar. The word is still sometimes capitalized to distinguish the global internet from smaller networks. However, many publications, including the AP Stylebook since 2016, recommend the lowercase form in every case. In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary found that “Internet” was capitalized in 54% of cases based on a study of approximately 2.5 billion printed and online sources.

 

The terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web” are often used interchangeably. It is common to refer to “going on the Internet” to browse web pages using a web browser. However, the World Wide Web, or the Web, is just one of the many Internet services. It is a collection of documents (web pages) and other web resources linked by hyperlinks and ULR

 

In the 1960s, computer scientists began developing systems for time-sharing computer resources. J. C. R. Licklider proposed the idea of a universal network while working at Bolt Beranek & Newman and, later, leading the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Research into packet switching, a fundamental Internet technology, began in the work of Paul Baran at RAND in the early 1960s and, independently, Donald Davies at the United Kingdom’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in 1965.

 

After the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in 1967, packet switching from the proposed NPL network and dynamic routing concepts proposed by Baran were incorporated into the design of the ARPANET, an experimental resource-sharing network proposed by ARPA.

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