Like virtually every other important technological development, the Internet was the product of many decades of work by hundreds of individuals, most of whom have received little or no credit for their work.

J.C.R. Licklider proposed the idea of an 'Intergalactic Computer Network' in the 1960s. Sometimes called the 'Johnny Appleseed' of computing, Licklider was a key influence in three of the institutions that played a leading role in creating the Internet; MIT, Bolt, Baranek and Neuman (BBN), and the DoD Advanced Projects Agency (ARPA). This vision led to a research program connecting four universities on the West coast of the US; UCSB, UCLA, Stanford and the University of Utah in 1969 and linking up to BBN on the East coast in 1970.

ARPANET, as the resulting network became known was funded for the sole purpose of researching the design of long distance computer networks. But almost immediately the ability to communicate with computers at other institutions became an expectation.