Janet Abbate

"The value of any network is directly related to the number of people it connects." This quote is not found anywhere in this book, but the Internet proves it's point. This delightful book is really about the development of the ARPAnet, the thing that became the Internet we know today. The story is told around the social factors that convinced a government agency based in the Pentagon, to fund a means to connect computers used in ARPA-funded research projects. Once this network is working, we show more follow the developments that first made it useful, then desirable, and soon indispensable. All of this while still funded by the military.
How the ARPAnet grew and finally moved to the public sector is full of twists and turns that had nothing to do with how the bits flow thru a wire and everything to do with the people who saw value.
The author writes from many conversations and emails with the actual people plus well-referenced information from other books. Only when we get to the web (the 5 years before the book is published) does this flawless referencing fall apart. [It's impossible to write the history of something that is still happening.] show less

It's now available as an ebook on the MIT press portal http://mitpress-ebooks.mit.edu/product/inventing-internet