Who invented the Internet?

A single person did not create the Internet that we know and use today. Below is a listing of different people who have helped contribute to and develop the Internet.

The idea

The initial idea of the Internet is credited to Leonard Kleinrock after he published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961.

In 1962, J.C.R. Licklider became the first Director of IPTO and gave his vision of a galactic network. Also, with ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network that later became ARPANET.

The history of the Internet begins with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. Initial concepts of wide area networking originated in several computer science laboratories in the United States, United Kingdom, and France.^[1] The US Department of Defense awarded contracts as early as the 1960s, including for the development of the ARPANET project, directed by Robert Taylor and managed by Lawrence Roberts. The first message was sent over the ARPANET in 1969 from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA) to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

SOME PEOPLE ABOUT TO KNOW 

Lawrence Roberts (scientist)

Lawrence G. Roberts (born December 21, 1937 in Connecticut) is an American scientist who received the Draper Prize in 2001 "for the development of the Internet",and the Principe de Asturias Award in 2002.

Robert Taylor (computer scientist)

Robert William Taylor (February 10, 1932 – April 13, 2017), known as Bob Taylor, was an American Internet pioneer, who led teams that made major contributions to the personal computer, and other related technologies. He was director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Officefrom 1965 through 1969, founder and later manager of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory from 1970 through 1983, and founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center until 1996

Leonard Kleinrock

Leonard Kleinrock (born June 13, 1934) is an American computer scientist. A professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, he made several important contributions to the field of computer networking, in particular to the theoretical foundations of computer networking. He played an influential role in the development of the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, at UCLA

J. C. R. Licklider

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (/ˈlɪklaɪdər/; March 11, 1915 – June 26, 1990), known simply as J. C. R. or "Lick", was an American psychologist^[2] and computer scientist who is considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history.
He is particularly remembered for being one of the first to foresee modern-style interactive computingand its application to all manner of activities; and also as an Internet pioneer with an early vision of a worldwide computer network long before it was built. He did much to initiate this by funding research which led to much of it, including today's canonical graphical user interface, and the ARPANET, the direct predecessor to the Internet.

A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network or computer network that extends over a large geographical distance/place. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits

ARPANET

Updated: 06/16/2017 by Computer Hope

Short for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, ARPANET or ARPAnetbegan development in 1966 by the United States ARPA. ARPANET was a Wide Area Network linking many Universities and research centers, was first to use packet switching, and was the beginning of what we consider the Internet today. ARPANET was created to make it easier for people to access computers, improve computer equipment, and to have a more effective communication method for the military.

ARPANET started when the first two nodes were established between UCLA and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1969 followed shortly after that by UCSB and the University of Utah. In the picture below is an example of what ARPANET looked like in March 1977, click the image to see a larger view of the image.