ber of qualified mathematicians in universities
were critical users while the development pro-
ceeded further. Errors and suggestions were eas-
ily reported to the developers. In this way the
program was subject to brutal testing and conse-
quent help in discovering weaknesses in the
interactivity of the program, a new and very
effective way of improving program robustness.
And a free source of good ideas was available
from a world of interested and competent users.
Many other research projects in many areas pro-
liferated around the network from the start.
Basic Open Technological
Research and Development
Basic ideas and techniques for networking were
implemented already in the initial “little”
Arpanet in 1969. The networking technology
was further refined and developed in an intimate
co-operation of ten research groups during the
1970s. That co-operation resulted in the technol-
ogy underlying today’s Internet. The results
were documented as standards. They were made
available to the US defense to be further formal-
ized and were openly available to anybody
world-wide, especially interested academic
groups.
That led to an increasing interest, also interna-
tionally, through the 1980s. From 1991 a very
rapid growth began. The public did generally not
know about the technology until 1995. The work
was not secret, however. The work and the
results were available to interested researchers
from the start in 1969. The basic idea was
resource sharing including human resources,
ideas and suggestions. And much was done to
create interest. A comprehensive public confer-
ence with demonstrations of several research
efforts was held in Washington DC in 1972.
Comprehensive presentations were made at the
Computer Communication Networking Confer-
ence at Brighton, England in 1973 and at the
International Computer Communication Confer-
ence – ICCC – at Stockholm, Sweden in 1974.
It was always essential for the development that
any kind of computer of any make could co-
operate in the network. Internet technology has
become an important reinforcement of the foun-
dations of both computer technology and tele-
com technology. In turn that has stimulated
innovations in business and in society in many
ways. Most likely we have just seen the begin-
ning of that development.
Internet Details
What is Actually Internet
In technical terms Internet is a network connect-
ing co-operating computers. The network trans-
ports information. The connected computers are
called host computers. They exchange informa-
tion with each other. The information transport
and exchange takes place according to standard-
ized technical procedures called protocols. Vari-
ous quantitative requirements of speed and other
factors can be specified for each transportation
task. The transport network also comprises com-
puters built into it, that carry out the logical
functions of accepting, delivering and routing
information being transported.The name “Internet” reflects the fact that the
transport network actually is a network of indi-
vidual interconnected nets.Computers can have various forms and sizes. A
computer may also be small and cheap and may
be built into an apparatus as a component, e.g. in
a telephone. Telecommunications are expected
to make increasing use of the Internet technol-
ogy, which will thus have an increasing role in
future telecommunications.Experiments in Computer Networking
Historically some computer networking experi-
ments began in 1969 as an experimental network
called Arpanet. It consisted initially of a number
of nodes connected by leased lines that could
transmit digital data streams. Each node was a
computer with a program that made it function
as a so-called “Interface Message Processor” –
IMP. The lines with modems could transmit up
to 56,000 bits per second, somewhat more on
some “legs” later on. One or more host comput-
ers could be connected to each IMP. Hosts might
be of various types and sizes and be used for
various applications. Unlike earlier computer
networks the Arpanet distinguished between the
IMP-computers that were part of the transport
network, and the host computers that were the
co-operating computers proper.From the initial Arpanet the technology was
developed into a basically new computer co-
operating technology – Internetworking-technol-
ogy. Its main constituents were defined around
1980.Some further technical refinement and signifi-
cant further geographical expansion of the net-
work took place through the 1980s. This was all
carried out on a non-commercial, experimental
basis. The network spread into many countries
around the Earth, primarily to universities and
research groups.Commercial traffic was prohibited until 1991.
That exclusion was then lifted. From then on the
growth of the network accelerated. In the early
1990s the growth corresponded to doubling the
number of connected host computers every
seven months approximately.