Key Individuals

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J.C.R. Licklider

  • First director of the IPTO
  • Envisioned a universal network in which humans interact efficiently with computers, communicating effectively.
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Bob Taylor

  • Third director of the IPTO
  • Pursued Licklider's "universal network"
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Larry Roberts

  • Headed the network project
  • Extraordinary networking experience
  • Architect of the ARPANET
  • Later, director of the IPTO
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Paul Baran

  • Worked for RAND (Research and Development) Corporation
  • Sought a distributed network that could survive a nuclear attack
  • Helped develop packet switching
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Baran's concept of an entirely "distributed" network. (Click to enlarge)

"If the strategic weapons command and control systems could be more survivable, then the country's retaliatory capability could better allow it to withstand an attack and still function; a more stable position.
…
Here a most dangerous situation was created by the lack of a survivable communication system."
- Baron in Inventing the Internet, Janet Abbate
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Leonard Kleinrock

  • Developed mathematical theories surrounding packet switching
  • Directed the first message sent across the Internet: "lo."
    (actually "log," but the system crashed on the "g")
"So we see that the first message, ever on the Internet, was "Lo" as in "Lo and behold!".  A more precise, more prophetic message they could not have planned."
- Klienrock, The Birth of the Internet/Personal History (from Website)
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Bob Kahn & Vint Cerf

  • Invented the TCP/IP protocols.
  • Kahn became director of the IPTO
The combined research and efforts of these individuals made the ARPANET a reality. Without their work, there may not have been the "Internet" of today.