Who Really Invented The Internet?

Xerox PARC headquarters.

Who Really Invented The Internet? -- Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal

Contrary to legend, it wasn't the federal government, and the Internet had nothing to do with maintaining communications during a war.

A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack Obama said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." He justified elevating bureaucrats over entrepreneurs by referring to bridges and roads, adding: "The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all companies could make money off the Internet."

It's an urban legend that the government launched the Internet. The myth is that the Pentagon created the Internet to keep its communications lines up even in a nuclear strike. The truth is a more interesting story about how innovation happens—and about how hard it is to build successful technology companies even once the government gets out of the way.

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My Comment: I recall reading in the 1980s an autobiography on Steve Jobs where he was boasting that many of his ideas (the use of the mouse, the mac, ethernet, etc.) .... all came came from Xerox Parc. As for Darpa's contribution to the internet .... they did a lot and have been credited for it .... but it is Xerox Parc that did the heavy lifting.