Ryan DeRose

Mr. McPartland
HTML/JavaScript
Period 6
9
th
of September, 2014

The Inventor(s) of the Internet

The notion of the Internets inventor is often attributed to various different people and
groups. These include the United States government, private organizations, and individuals.
However, it proves to be rather difficult to give recognition to only one major group or person as
the creator of the Internet. Each candidate for the invention of the Internet seems only to have
contributed some concepts or elements of the foundation and fundamentals of the Internet. For
example, the US government has contributed heavily to the development of the Internet. They
saw the potential for advancements in protection, communication, education, and overall life,
and funded the research of the creation of a worldwide network connecting computers and the
information thereon. The government even created a precursor to the Internet called ARPAnet,
that was used for security and information in the Pentagon. Similar creations include the NPL
network, of the British National Physics Laboratory and the Merit Network of universities in
Michigan. Also, the use of Ethernet cables and computer connectivity is often attributed to
Xerox. One specific person who envisioned a global computer network is Vannevar Bush, who
worked for the Defense Research Committee in World War II. After Bush came J.C.R. Licklider,
who shared his ideas. Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf were two individuals that created/envisioned
the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, which enabled different networks to
merge and become regulated. Paul Baran, Donald Davies and Leonard Kleinrock were three
mathematicians who developed the system by which data is sent over the Internet. Herein,
otherwise-large data files are split up into segments, sent simultaneously and separately to a
computer, and are re-assembled thereon. One of the most influential contributors to the Internet
as we know it is Tim Berners-Lee. Lee is responsible for the creation/refining of the World Wide
Web, URL, HTML, and HTTM. Finally, other contributors to the Internet as we know it are Ray
Tomlinson (inventor of e-mail), Abhay Bhushan (developer file transfer protocol), and Paul
Mockapetrix (creator of the Domain Name system). In sum, the Internet will likely never be said
to have one single creator, just as it will continue to grow, and to remain unowned and public.

Sources: http://inventors.about.com/od/istartinventions/a/Internet.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/who-invented-the-Internet.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet