TMA 04 - Main Page

By Stephanie Bell

Introduction

The Internet today is a massive source of information, communication and pleasure. It enables us to do many different things, from sending letters that arrive within seconds (email) and conferencing with people we’ve never met (Usenet), to playing games (WWW) and even finding a partner! (Chat rooms on the WWW). But what has not been made clear is who it was that created the Internet. Who can be given the title of the 'Father(s) of the Internet?' Newspapers and magazines have differing views on the subject as I outline below. If they cannot agree on who it was, how can the public?

BBC News have an article: “Clinton Honours Net Pioneers” (accessed 25.08.00)
It says that Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn are the creators.

USA Today (A news site) published an article by Bruce Haring who asks:
"Who really invented the Internet?"
(accessed on 27.08.00).
It gives a quote from Vint Cerf: "I didn't get to play with this stuff until I was 28," laments Cerf, echoing his colleagues. "I often envy the kids who are 8 years old and hacking the Net. They got to do it 20 years before I did. I had to go off and invent it."

The description of the word 'Invent' in the dictionary says: "devise, originate, fabricate." The word 'devise' has the meaning "contrive". The Internet was I suppose 'contrived' from the Arpanet but the word invent is usually associated with the first thought of ideas and the creation of those ideas. The word that Cerf used, (invent) could give people the impression that he alone thought up the idea of the Internet?

BBC News also have an article: "The Wonder of the Web" (accessed on 27.08.00). It's about a book by John Naughton called: “A Brief History of the Future”. The article includes a quote by Naughton about Paul Baran: “He has the strongest claim to be ‘father of the Internet’”.

The Daily Telegraph has two articles: “Internet pioneer sets sights on new worlds to conquer”, which names Cerf as the pioneer and another article: “Mouse Inventor Honoured, Robert Uhlig on the Father of the Internet”, (both accessed on 25.08.00), that gives Douglas Engelbart the title.

These statements can make the whole issue confusing. This article outlines the contributions made by the people mentioned above and several others. From the initial ideas to how the Internet is today. It then questions whether it is justifiable to label one man as “The father of the Internet”. It concludes with my opinions on the subject and why I hold them.

Who is the Father of the Internet?

The first published idea of machines connecting to each other and to a vast source of information was an article entitled “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush. The article gives opinions and ideas about technology and how machines could be used, to hold vast amounts of information that can easily be accessed. It has uncanny similarities to the World Wide Web today, even though it was published in 1945, long before it was created.

Vannevar Bush

The article strongly influenced Douglas Engelbart who invented multiple, re-sizable windows, bit-mapped screens, video-conferencing, the mouse and the linking of documents (similar to the web). Engelbart also gave a demonstration showing how the control of a computer system could be passed over to SRI - 40 miles away.

Douglas Engelbart

Wes Clark, a young engineer at Lincoln Labs showed psychologist, Joseph Licklider how a computer could be interactive. "The sessions with Clark made an indelible impression on Lick" says the book: Where Wizards Stay Up Late. The book also says that Licklider "imagined "home computer consoles" and television sets linked together in a massive network".

JCR Licklider

In 1962, Licklider went to work at ARPA (a special agency within the US Department of Defense set up to fund and foster advanced research in a number of areas, including computing).
Licklider changed ARPA’s focus from war related computer developments to computer time-sharing, graphics and language. In 1960, Licklider published a paper entitled: “Man Computer Symbiosis” about the computer’s relationship with man and how computers could make decisions to aid humans.

In 1965, Paul Baran - an engineer at RAND - had the idea of block-switching and in another continent, Donald Davies had the idea of packet-switching. Both systems were almost identical in principal. This was the process of message blocks from a computer being disassembled, sent to a destination, then reassembled. Packet-switching is used today when for example a file is sent via the Internet.

Paul Baran

Bob Taylor had the idea of connecting computers together and the use of one language and a set of protocols. He was - according to the "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" book - "The one who had started the Arpanet."

Frank Heart built these hosts.

Larry Roberts designed in 1967, the structure for the Arpanet – the first network of connected computers. He hired Bob Kahn who was the co-designer with Vint Cerf of the TCP/IP protocol. TCP is the protocol that breaks messages into packets and assigns them. IP is the protocol that assigns and resolves Internet addresses. Without these protocols, the Internet wouldn’t operate properly as there are so many different types of computer. They all need one language to follow for them to interact with each other successfully. Cerf led the development of TCP/IP. In 1972, Kahn demonstrated the Arpanet between 40 machines and in 1973, Vint Cerf sketched the gateway architecture.
In 1972, Larry Roberts founded Telenet, the first commercial packet-switching service. He also wrote the first e-mail program.

Larry Roberts

Bob Kahn

Ted Nelson coined the terms 'Hypertext' & 'Docuverse'.

Bill Atkinson Helped produce the Apple Mac then invented 'HyperCard' (first hypertext sytem for personal computers).

Steve Crocker sent first RFC (Request for Comments) and started open protocol.

Ray Tomlinson developed the first FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and also the ‘@’ in email addresses and John Postel invented the Domain Name System (DNS) introduced in 1984.

In 1991 was the release of the World Wide Web (WWW), invented by Tim Berners-Lee. He invented all the protocols (URL, HTTP, HTML) needed for it and the software (including browsers). The WWW was one of the killer applications of the Internet along with e-mail and seems to be the most talked about aspect of the Net. After the release of the Web the Internet became increasingly popular with communities that weren’t research focused.

Tim Berners-Lee

In 1993, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina created the ‘Mosaic’ browser. This was the first user-friendly 'clickable' browser and still used today by some. In 1994 Andreessen started a company with Jim Clark. They called it ‘The Netscape Communication Corporation’ and it became a multi-million dollar corporation within 2 years. The Netscape browser was easier and better than Mosaic.

Conclusion

These people (above) all played a part in the concept and development of the Internet. It could be said that a father is someone that plants a seed, waits for it to develop and be born and then nurtures it so it grows into a stable and happy adult. We could then use this as a metaphor for the creation of the Internet, in which case there would be a number of different fathers. Vannevar Bush could be said to have planted the seed in that he planted the ‘idea’. The rest of the contributors (above) could be the fathers who created and ‘nurtured’ the Arpanet which led on to the Internet.
This still does not answer the question of who actually created the Internet. The problem with a question like this is that there was not just one creator.
Here are links to two messages from my fellow students studying the history of the Internet. The first one has the subject title: "the definitive answer" posted from Andrew Marshall, who informs us of an article about Al Gore's quote: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." He apparantly promoted the Internet. He did not create it.
Another message from Steven Phipps entitled: "My Vote" says that he thinks that Tim Berners-Lee should have the title, but goes on to say that he was the father of the Web.
Steven says the reason he thinks this is: "because he is the man that brought the internet (or what there was of it) to the general public. with out him it would probably still be a scientific talking shop with a very small audience, (IMHO)". It has to be said that Berners-Lee hugely contributed to the success and popularity of the Internet which has made computers more popular to have in the home instead of just in business establishments and with educational communities etc. But this happened after the initial creation of the Internet.

My Opinions

The word 'creator' has a different meaning to the word 'father'. Of course the latter term is used metaphorically but they still describe two different kinds of people. In my opinion, the father of Internet should be someone who we associate the Internet with. When the majority of the world think of the Internet, they think of the WWW and e-mail which are it's main uses. So surely the inventors of the WWW and e-mail should be given this title: Tim Berners-Lee (who invented the Internet) Larry Roberts the creator of e-mail, the other killer application of the Internet.
The creators of the Internet were all the people mentioned on this page up to and including the contributions made by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn. Without each and every one of the men above and their contributions, the Internet may or may not be what it is today. Yes, Kahn and Cerf started the practical development of it, but without Bush, Engelbart, Licklider, Baran, Taylor and Wes Clarke’s ideas, would they have started it? And Larry Roberts designed the structure of the first network: the Arpanet. There are too many people who made a difference to label one or two people with the label of the creator.

There is plenty of evidence in books and on the web (ironically) about who participated in the initial ideas, creation and development of the Internet.
Some of these sources of information are given on the references page.