The development of the Internet, a network of networks, spanned decades, mirroring a gestation period.

To foster discussion and ensure recognition, I suggest viewing the Internet’s development through four clear and measurable stages:

Phase 1: The Conceptual Visionaries

These are the dreamers who envisioned linked computing, hypertext, and dynamic digital interfaces long before viable networks emerged. Their foresight guided successive waves of builders and funders.

  1. 1945 – Precursor to Hypertext Systems – Vannevar Bush
  2. 1948 – Founder of Information Theory – Claude Shannon
  3. 1948 – Father of Cybernetics – Norbert Wiener
  4. 1959 – Filed the first patent for time-sharing systems and presented early ideas on multi-user interactive computing – Christopher Strachey
  5. 1959 – Pioneer of Time-Sharing Systems – John McCarthy
  6. 1960 – Hypertext theory, Project Xanadu – Ted Nelson
  7. 1961 – Led the development of the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) at MIT – Fernando Corbató
  8. 1962 – Visionary of a “Galactic Network” – J.C.R. Licklider (IHOF Inductee 2013)
  9. 1963 – Computer graphics and interactive computing concepts – Ivan Sutherland
  10. 1966 – The Challenge of the Computer Utility (cloud vision) – Douglas Parkhill
  11. 1966 – ARPA advocate, funded early networking research – Robert Taylor (IHOF Inductee 2013)
  12. 1968 – NLS demo, mouse, hypertext – Douglas Engelbart (IHOF Inductee 2014)
  13. 1968 – Dynabook, object-oriented programming, GUI vision – Alan Kay

Phase 2: Foundational: Architecture, Protocol Development, Networking Equipment, & Network Services

The engineering breakthroughs that defined packets, routing, addressing, naming, protocols, and the fundamental structure of internetworking.

  1. 1956 – Distributed network pioneer – Paul Baran (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  2. 1961 – Pioneer of Queueing Theory in Networks – Leonard Kleinrock (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  3. Mid-1960s – Packet switching concept – Donald Davies (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  4. 1960s–70s – Datagram architecture, Cyclades – Louis Pouzin (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  5. 1960s – Collaborated on early research into time-sharing over wide-area networks with Lawrence Roberts – Thomas Merrill
  6. 1966 – Architected ARPANET – Lawrence Roberts (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  7. 1960-70’s– Pioneer of Packet Switching Protocols – Roger Scantlebury
  8. 1967 – Proposed dedicated IMPs – Wesley Clark
  9. 1968 – Inventor of ALOHAnet – Norman Abramson
  10. 1968–69 – Built the first IMP routers – BBN / Frank Heart et al. (Frank Heart: IHOF Inductee 2014)
  11. 1969 – First ARPANET message – Charley Kline & Bill Duvall
  12. 1969 – Created the RFC system – Steve Crocker (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  13. 1969–1983 – Developer of NCP Protocol for ARPANET – Alex McKenzie
  14. 1971 – Invented network email – Ray Tomlinson (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  15. 1971 – Authored the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and contributed to TCP/IP architecture models – Abhay Bhushan (IHOF Inductee 2021)
  16. 1972 – Pioneer of Distributed Operating Systems – Hubert Zimmermann
  17. 1973–74 – Designed TCP/IP – Robert Kahn & Vint Cerf (IHOF Inductee 2012 for both)
  18. 1970s – Worked on the early design and testing of TCP/IP, focusing on reliability and distributed systems – Gérard Le Lann
  19. 1970s – Key contributor to TCP/IP implementation at ISI and long-term RFC Editor – Robert Braden
  20. 1970s – Developed the first internetworking gateway software for TCP/IP – Virginia Strazisar Travers (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  21. 1970s – Co-author of the End-to-End Arguments paper and gateway developer – Noel Chiappa
  22. 1970s–1990s – Pioneer in TCP/IP testing and Internet security protocols, including IPsec and secure DNS – Stephen Kent
  23. 1973 – Invented Ethernet – Robert Metcalfe & David Boggs (Robert Metcalfe: IHOF Inductee 2013)
  24. 1973 – Connected European research networks – Peter Kirstein (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  25. 1973–74 – Developed early gateways and TCP/IP implementations at BBN – William Plummer
  26. 1973–74 – Contributed ideas and counsel to early TCP specification at University College London – Martine Galland
  27. 1973–74 – Key in protocol development and implementation for University College London’s ARPANET connection – Peter Higginson
  28. 1973–1974 – Part of UCL team for first transatlantic TCP test – Andrew Hinchley
  29. 1980s – Led TCP/IP adoption at CERN, bridging European research networks – Ben Segal (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  30. 1973 – Connected Norwegian research networks to ARPANET, one of the first non-U.S. sites – Yngvar G. Lundh (IHOF Inductee 2013)
  31. 1973–74 – Contributed to early TCP implementation and testing at Stanford – Ronald Crane
  32. 1973–74 – Analyzed TCP handshakes for reliability, proposing alternatives – Dag Belsnes
  33. 1973–1974 – Worked on the first implementation of email in the UK and extended ARPANET links – Adrian Stokes
  34. 1973–74 – Built early TCP implementation for Apple systems – James Mathis
  35. 1973–74 – Contributed to TCP/IP design and testing at Stanford – Darryl Rubin
  36. 1973–74 – Contributed to TCP/IP host interconnection discussions – Kunio Goto
  37. 1973–74 – Participated in TCP/IP packet-switched host interconnections for international interoperability – Kuninobu Tanno
  38. 1974 – ARPANET directory services – Elizabeth Feinler (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  39. 1975–2000s – Key contributor to the design, testing, and implementation of TCP/IP protocols, and networking – Judy Estrin
  40. 1976 – Spanning Tree Protocol – Radia Perlman (IHOF Inductee 2014)
  41. 1977 – Pioneer of packet voice and packet video; creator of Network Voice Protocol (NVP) and Visual Flight Simulator over ARPANET – Danny Cohen (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  42. 1978 – Co-author of the End-to-End Arguments in System Design, and TCP/IP testing and simulation defining a core Internet principle – David P. Reed
  43. 1970s – Early TCP research – Carl Sunshine, Yogen Dalal, Richard Karp, Pål Spilling (Pål Spilling: IHOF Inductee 2021)
  44. 1978 – Bulletin Board System (BBS) and XMODEM – Ward Christensen
  45. 1980s – IANA, RFC editor – Jon Postel (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  46. 1980s – Co-principal investigator and key architect of NSFNET backbone upgrades – Hans-Werner Braun (IHOF Inductee 2021)
  47. 1981 – End-to-End Arguments in Network Design – David D. Clark (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  48. 1980s–1990s – Internet Cartographer – John S. Quarterman (IHOF Inductee 2025)
  49. 1983-87 – Domain Name System (DNS) – Paul Mockapetris (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  50. 1980s – Markup foundation – ISO / SGML Contributors (GML – Goldfarb, Mosher, Lorie – was the precursor to SGML)
  51. 1985 – FidoNet Creator – Tom Jennings
  52. 1985-92 – Multicast, IPv6 – Steve Deering
  53. 1984 – Co-founders of Cisco Systems, developers of the first commercially successful multi-protocol router – Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner
  54. 1990s–2000s – Pioneer of IPv6 Deployment – Dong Liu (IHOF Inductee 2025)
  55. 1986 – NSFNET architecture – Dennis Jennings (IHOF Inductee 2014)
  56. 1987–1990s – Early web visionary and browser – Robert Cailliau (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  57. Late 1980s – Built one of the first commercial and most influential early ISP backbones – Rich Adams
  58. 1988 – TCP congestion control – Van Jacobson (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  59. 1980s – Developed the Network Time Protocol (NTP) – David Mills
  60. 1990s – TCP Congestion Control Algorithms – Sally Floyd
  61. 1980s–1990s – Public access to government/legal info – Carl Malamud
  62. 1983–1998 – IANA management, RFC editor – Joyce Reynolds (IHOF Inductee 2025, posthumous)
  63. 1985–1990s – DNS interoperability, IDN – Patrik Fältström (IHOF Inductee 2025)
  64. 1990s–2000s – Champion of Multilingual Internet – Ram Mohan (IHOF Inductee 2025)
  65. 1989 – Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) – Kirk Lougheed & Yakov Rekhter (Kirk IHOF Inductee 2025 & Yakov IHOF Inductee 2021)
  66. 1991 – Creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the first widely available encryption software for email – Philip Zimmermann (IHOF Inductee 2012)
  67. 2008 – DNS Flaw, the Kaminsky Bug – Dan Kaminsky (IHOF Inductee 2025)

Phase 3: Advancements: Infrastructure, Application, Services, Protocols, & Standardization

The creation of browsers, standards, and protocols that transformed raw connectivity into a usable medium for humans, institutions, and early commerce.

  1. 1990 – Gopher menu driven document delivery (text, image, videos, audios, software executables) protocol – Mark McCahill
  2. 1990 – Invented Archie, the world’s first Internet search engine – Alan Emtage (IHOF Inductee 2017)
  3. 1991 – First HTTP/HTML server (text only on NeXTPC, WWW software system) browsers – CERN, Paul Kunz, Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee, Nicola Pellow, Jean‑François Groff, Dan Connolly (Robert Cailliau and Tim Berners-Lee: IHOF Inductees 2012)
  4. 1979 – Co-created Usenet, the first distributed discussion system – Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, Steve Bellovin, and Steve Daniel
  5. Early 1990s – ViolaWWW Unix browser (rendered images inline, not just text like WWW/CERN) – Pei-Yuan Wei
  6. 1991–1993 – Web server, Mosaic ports – Rob McCool & NCSA HTTPd Team
  7. Early 1990s – HTML specifications, HTML+ and HTML 3.0 – Dave Raggett
  8. 1992–1993 – Mosaic browser – Eric Bina, Marc Andreessen, Larry Smarr, Joseph Hardin (Marc Andreessen: IHOF Inductee 2013)
  9. 1993 – HTML standardization – Dan Connolly
  10. 1993–1994 – HTTP security / authentication – Philip Hallam-Baker
  11. 1996 – REST Architectural Style and HTTP/1.1 – Roy Fielding
  12. 1994–1996 – Pioneer of SSL and Web Encryption – Taher ElGamal
  13. 1994 – URL standardization – Larry Masinter
  14. 1995 – Inventor of JavaScript, the foundational web scripting language – Brendan Eich
  15. 1995 – Wiki Inventor – Ward Cunningham
  16. 1990s – Academic & standardization institutions – Xerox PARC, W3C, CERN, MIT, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UIUC, USC, IETF, Stanford

Phase 4: The Effective Birth of the Internet: When the World First Had a Network of Networks, Fulfilling the Literal Definition of “the Internet”

1996 — Globalization of the Internet and eCommerce — Mark Nichols