How it all began: a brief history of the Internet
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720010804221 |
| Pages | 90-95 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| Author | Alice Keefer,Tomas Baiget |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
90 — VINE 124
How it all began: a
brief history of the
Internet
by Alice Keefer and Tomas Baiget
When an article on the history of the Internet was
first suggested, our reaction was, “But doesn’t
everyone already know how it started?” Having
lived the experience (or, perhaps more aptly,
having survived it), we had become like veterans
of any major event who assume that certain facts
will always be maintained in the collective
memory. However, we ourselves –from the US
and Spain, respectively– have noted with incredu-
lity the mistaken answers given by members of the
younger generations among our compatriots to
such questions as: “In what Southeast Asian
country did the US fight a war?” or “Who was
Francisco Franco?”. While for some, the answers
are burnt into the cerebral circuitry, the younger
respondents treat the questions as so many Trivial
Pursuit challenges, on the same par as “What team
did Brazil beat in the 1962 World Cup?” or “What
was the name of the boy actor who played Timmy
in the original Lassie series?”
While the Internet’s development may lack the
emotional charge of the Vietnam War or the
Franco dictatorship, it has had a whopping effect
on the society in which we live, including com-
merce, finance, health, education, politics, leisure,
etc. S o,we accep ted the charg e to w rite a b rief
historical review of the Internet at a time which
very neatly (albeit roughly) coincides with several
significant anniversaries: approximately 30 years
since the Internet’s inception; 10 years since its
liberalisation which opened the floodgates to new
users; and 5 years since the incorporation of Web
applications into the mainstream.1
We imagine the article to be addressed to two
different demographic groups: 1) those who were
working in the information field during the past 5-
10 years and who have seen their professional
activities (and perhaps their personal lives) altered
by the Internet, and 2) those that have come into
the labour market in the past 5 years, to whom the
Internet has always been a “given”. We hope that
there will be something new for everyone. So join
us for a walk, with musical accompaniment, down
memory lane.2
Revolution, Beginnings of
[Authors’ note: Those readers that already know
that Internet had its beginnings as a defence
project may jump to the next section.]
Following the Second World War and lasting
through to the late 1980’s, a Cold War was fought
between the world’s two superpowers —the
United States and the now defunct Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. While military build ups,
political sparring, and diplomatic manoeuvring
were the most obvious activities, there were also
many spin-off effects into other areas including
some near er and dearer to the heart of librarians
and documentalists, such as research and educa-
tion. For example, the USSR’s jump-start of the
space race with the launch of the Sputnik satellite
in 1957 sparked a dedicated effort in the United
States to boost scientific research. Academic and
research libraries, by and large, became beneficiar-
ies of the government largesse that resulted from
this “knowledge race.” Collections boomed in
order to keep up with the production of scientific
literature. In order to control the resulting surge in
bibliographical data, computers were enlisted to
process the information then published as print or
microfilmed indexes, and which subsequently
would be transformed into databases accessible
through the large host services that sprang up in
the early 1970s, such as Dialog, SDC-Orbit, ESA-
IRS (Dia lTech), Blaise, BRS , etc.
Back in the US..., back in the
US..., back in the USSR
The 1960s saw several near collisions between the
US and the USSR, the most notable being the
Cuban missile crisis in 1962, which had Americans
scrambling to build and supply bomb shelters in
their suburban back yards. Although that particu-
lar crisis was defused when the USSR agreed to
withdraw its nuclear projectiles from Cuba, patri-
otic paranoia persisted.
With this mental set as a backdrop and as comput-
ers became more prevalent in large government
and research installations, the US Defense Depart-
ment’s Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) was commissioned to establish a secure
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