Name:Class:"computer"by Plymouth District Library is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.How the Internet Came to BeBy Shelby Ostergaard2017The Internet is a tool used by countless people across the world, but how well do they understand how itdeveloped? In this informational text, Shelby Ostergaard explores the development of the Internet and howit came to be the tool we use today. As you read, take notes on how different projects led to thedevelopment of the Internet.The Internet powers the whole world. It’s usedevery day by people all over the globe. In fact,according to the World Wide Web Foundation,there are over one billion websites. On any oneday, billions of users have searched Google threeand a half billion times and sent 155 billionemails. Those numbers keep growing as moreand more people connect. The Internet is thebackbone of the 21st century and will likelyremain an important part of our social, political,and cultural lives. Because of this, it is vital tounderstand some basic things about the Internet,like who created it and why.The Internet is the world’s most popular computer network system. It is used by over three billionpeople around the world. A computer network system is a telecommunications1network that allowsdifferent computers to connect and share data. Data shared by different computers over the Internetencompasses all sorts of things — from the last thing you typed in a Facebook chat window to theprograms that run Google’s search engine.The Internet isn’t owned by anyone, and it was not really created by any one person. Instead, lots ofcomputer scientists contributed to various projects at corporations and academic institutions, which,when all combined, eventually led to the Internet as we know it. Bite-sized collaboration is the natureof computer science. But while the Internet has no clear creator, it does have a clear starting point.The Internet began as ARPANET,2an academic research project funded by the US Department ofDefense. The idea stemmed from computer scientists Donald Davies, Ivan Sutherland, and Bob Taylor,who wanted to create a computer network using new packet switching technology. Packet switchingtechnology packages data into small bunches, called packets, and then allows those packets to travelfrom a computer at one location to a computer at another. The route the packets take does not haveto be linear or straight, and data can be sent to multiple computers and multiple locations at once.
