This chapter provides a history of the development of the Internet in terms of its infrastructure, applications, and sources of inspiration. In doing so, it portrays the chief personalities, ideas, visions, and concerns forming the context in which the Internet was created.
This paper was first published online by the Internet Society in December 20031 and is being re-published in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review because of its historic import.
Internet, scattered over forty-two countries, with more coming on-line every day. Three million, Three million, possibly four million people use this gigantic mother-of-all-computer-networks.