History of Cyberspace

One of the most interesting and extensive histories of cyberspace is by Howard Rheingold. A more scholarly and technical history can be found in the best-selling Where Wizards Stay Up Late.

Here's a brief overview:

The history of the internet goes back to the early 1960s when computers were not interlinked and it was difficult for researchers at different universities to communicate with one another with computers and utilize them to exchange ideas. To solve this problem, the ARPANET was developed to enable simple forms of communication between computers. The Defense Department took over ARPANET in order to maintain a computer network that is decentralized and, therefore, could continue to function during nuclear war. Many organizations could not acess this network, so other networks such as BITNET and CSNET were created to facillitate communication between computers. Unfortunately,these networks could not interact with eachother or with ARPANET until IP (internet prototcol) was invented. This was the birth of the internet, a network of networks. As more and more scientists and corporations began to use the internet, it began to increasingly difficult to successfully retrieve information. Various programs such as "Archie" "GOPHER" and "VERONICA" functioned as signposts enabling users to quickly navigate through the jungle of information on the exponentially growing internet. In 1992 a new method of navigation, known as the World Wide Web, was developed by Tim Berners-Lee. This is the method we still use today in which internet users browse Web sites by clicking on hypertext or "links" which connect to the associated adress any where on the net.

The Discovery Channel On-line has a time line that explains the history of the internet in greater detail. Another helpful, but really basic site is The Kids Internet Museum.