The Internet is a giant network composed of smaller networks, using computers, telephone lines and other communication devices to hold the networks together. It is an infrastructure that supports the transmission of electronic data. The first kernel of the idea for the Internet was conceived in the 1950's, during the Cold War when the Eisenhower administration created the Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA. This agency was formed in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik, the first manmade satellite to orbit the earth. The agency enlisted some of the best minds in the country to use existing technology for military purposes to develop new technology to defend the U.S. against a Soviet nuclear attack.

It wasn't until 1962 that the idea of an interconnected computer network was considered. J.C.R. Licklider, a scientist from MIT, became the first director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO). Licklider studied the relationship between computers and humans and eventually came up with the idea of an intergalactic network where scientists could share research and collaborate on projects. Although the idea was popular at ARPA, the foremost consideration at the time was preparing for Nuclear war. Since Licklider did not possess the technical expertise to develop the network, it remained only an idea for the time being.

The third director of IPTO at ARPA, Robert Taylor took up the ball. When he became frustrated with the computer systems at ARPA, which were tied to the Pentagon through connections and had separate controls. He devised a networked computer system that was much more efficient. With more technical expertise than his predecessors, he was able to design a network and received almost immediate approval for its development. He hired another MIT scientist, Larry Roberts, who was experienced in long distance computer networking, to develop a prototype system that would be used for the ARPA network. In 1969, the first ARPAnet connection came together.

ARPAnet grabbed the imaginations of universities and government facilities, all performing various experiments on the capabilities of ARPAnet. Out of these experiments e-mail was discovered by Ray Tomlinson, an engineer with BBN, who sent the first electronic mail. He also was the first person to use the @ symbol to delimit the end use and the domain name in an e-mail address.

Huge traffic ensued on ARPAnet, and the Network might have been headed for a crash if not for the development of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), a set of protocols that could handle the heavier ARPAnet traffic. The acceptance of TCP/IP as the default transmission signaled the beginning of the Internet as we know it. The Internet instantly began to grow, by 1990 there were over 100,000 hosts (computers to which other computers are connected).

However, it is the World Wide Web which is responsible for bringing the Internet to the homes and offices of millions of people all over the world. The idea for the World Wide Web was developing almost simultaneously with the concept of the original ARPAnet.

In 1945 Vannevar Bush, the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Roosevelt administration wrote an article, "As We May Think" in which he proposed a system of automated information access in which all materials are indexed associatively. At the heart of the system is a theoretical device called the "memex" which stores all the information and records and could be consulted with exceeding "speed and flexibility". According to Bush, it would be a supplement to the memory.

This article caught the attention and interest of many scientists, and eventually a system of information collaboration was devised by Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson, called Concurrent Development, Integration and Application of Knowledge(CoDIAK). This idea of supplementing the collective human intelligence was proposed to the government and at that time was dismissed. Engelbart went on to focus on other areas of interactive computing and invented the computer mouse. Meanwhile, Nelson initiated "Project Xanadu" in 1960 with the idea of creating a document universe(a "docuverse") that would inter-connect and cross-reference every important written document in the world.

Despite the work of Engelbart and Nelson, it was Tim Berners-Lee, an English born scientist working at European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) who finally was able to produce a viable system of associatively indexed information. He saw a need to create a interactive, interconnected system which would allow scientists and scholars to share their ideas. In 1980, he wrote Enquire-Within-Ud undergraduates founded Excite (http://www.excite.com ) In 1995, Andreessen co-founded Netscape Communications which produces Netscape Navigator and Microsoft had launched Internet Explorer.

As time has passed, the Web has become the dominant feature on the Internet, and has replaced many of the formerly used methods of organizing and transmitting data on the Internet. On-line action is primarily e-mail and the Web. Although e-mail is the most popular activity supported by the Internet, it is not as exciting as is the Web. And it can only become more and more thrilling as time goes by-mainly because of the potential for generating revenue. Currently, money is primarily generated from on-line commerce. An individual can use the Internet to purchase anything from Real Estate to coffee or flowers. The Internet has produced several companies whose stock have grown more than 1000% in a few years. The potential for income generation on the Web is far from fulfilled. It can only grow from here.

And it's getting easier and easier to use the Web. The emergence of Web portals (a web starting point) have provided users with a number of popular services, including news, web-searching capabilities and interactive forums in a single site. This provides one-stop information to busy individuals. Some of the portals are Excite, Lycos, Yahoo! and Infoseek.

The developers of ARPAnet and Project Xanadu could never have predicted that they were precursors to an information system that changed the way we live. The changes that will follow will likely be equally life altering. From the income generating possibilities, to the convergence of media, to the improvement of Internet connectivity. Where the Internet goes from here is only an idea now-but it's going to be thrilling!