Instead of having a single inventor, the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following people are Internet pioneers who have been recognized for their contribution to its early and ongoing development. These contributions include theoretical foundations, building early networks, specifying protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.

This list includes people who were:

acknowledged by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in their seminal 1974 paper on internetworking, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication"; or received the IEEE Internet Award; or have been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame; or are included on the Stanford University "Birth of the Internet" plaque."Stanford University 'Birth of the Internet' Plaque", web page, J. Noel Chiappa, Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT

Among the pioneers, along with Cerf and Kahn, Bob Metcalfe, Donald Davies, Louis Pouzin, Steve Crocker and Ray Tomlinson meet three out of the four criteria above; as well as Jon Postel, considering the 2003 IEEE Internet award on which he is posthumously cited. Davies and Kahn are featured in the 1972 documentary film Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing along with several early pioneers.

Other Internet pioneers, who made notable contributions to the development of the Internet but do not meet any of the four criteria above, are listed in the final section of the article.

The pioneers are listed in rough chronological order, reflecting the process through which the Internet developed.

Birth of the Internet plaque

A plaque commemorating the "Birth of the Internet" was dedicated at a conference on the history and future of the Internet on 28 July 2005 and is displayed at Stanford University.

Background The seminal paper on internetworking, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication", published in 1974 by Vint Cerf, at Stanford University, and Bob Kahn, at ARPA, acknowledges a number of early members of the International Network Working Group (INWG): "The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues for helpful comments during early discussions of international network protocols, especially R. Metcalfe, R. Scantlebury, D. Walden, and H. Zimmerman; D. Davies and L. Pouzin who constructively commented on the fragmentation and accounting issues; and S. Crocker who commented on the creation and destruction of associations".

The first version of TCP, RFC 675, was written later that year by Cerf with Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine. The introduction states "The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of R. Tomlinson ..., D. Belsnes, J. Burchfiel, M. Galland, R. Kahn, D. Lloyd, W. Plummer, and J. Postel all of whose good ideas and counsel have had a beneficial effect (we hope) on this protocol design. In the early phases of the design work, R. Metcalfe, A. McKenzie, H. Zimmerman, G. LeLann, and M. Elie were most helpful in explicating the various issues to be resolved."

Subsequently, ARPA funded another working group to develop TCP for use for internetworking. Over two hundred Internet Experiment Notes (IEN) were produced, documenting the group's work. Only a few of the people who authored notes, or who participated in the work or whose work was referenced in the notes are named on the "Birth of the Internet" plaque. Robert Metclafe, Yogen Dalal and John Shoch contributed to discussions leading up to the splitting of TCP, which influenced the work of Jon Postel at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California (USC-ISI) published as the second Internet Experiment Note (IEN2).

TCP version 2, published in 1977 (IEN5), authored by Cerf, states that "Although the list of participants in the TCP work is very long (see ... the final TCP project report), special acknowledgements are due to R. Kahn, R. Tomlinson, Y. Dalal, R. Karp and C. Sunshine for their active participation In the design of TCP." At that time, the "Final Report of the Internetwork TCP Project" was to be written by: Cerf, who led the work at Stanford University and had moved to ARPA to manage the program with Kahn; Peter T. Kirstein, who led the work at University College London (UCL); and Paal Spilling, who led the work at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE); and, in addition, three of their team members who were Stephen Edge and Andrew Hinchley at UCL, who authored the first IEN (along with their colleague Chris Bennett who authored several other IENs), and Richard Karp at Stanford.

The preface of version 3, published in 1978 by Cerf and Postel, states that "The evolution from TCP version 2 to version 3 was influenced by many people, but special mention should be made of the work at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science on the Data Stream Protocol (DSP) by Dave Clark and Dave Reed. Many of the specific changes introduced in version 3 were first described by Ray Tomlinson of BBN." It goes on to add that "This edition of the specification benefited from the comments of the following reviewers: Michael Padlipsky, Carl Sunshine, John Day, Gary Grossman, and Ray Tomlinson".

Postel published version 4 later that year, in which TCP and IP were split into separate protocols, the preface of which notes "This revised edition of the version 4 specification was influenced by the comments of the following: Vint Cerf, Dick Watson, Carl Sunshine, Danny Cohen, Dave Clark, John Day, Gary Grossman, Jim Mathis, Bill Plummer, Jack Haverty, and the whole TCP Working Group."

The bibliography of each of the TCP versions references papers published by many more researchers active in the field at the time.

The final report of the project, which was orchestrated and funded by ARPA, was eventually published by Cerf alone in 1980 under the title "Final Report of the Stanford University TCP Project" (IEN151); several of the people mentioned in the report are named on the plaque. Cerf has discussed the role of some of the participants in his oral history, including Roger Scantlebury and Donald Davies; his graduate students at Stanford, Judy Estrin, Richard Karp, Yogan Dalal, and Carl Sunshine; and visiting researchers Gérard Le Lann, Dag Belsnes, James Mathis, Darryl Rubin, and Ronald Crane.

Inscription The text printed and embossed in black into the brushed bronze surface of the Stanford plaque reads:

BIRTH OF THE INTERNET

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE INTERNET AND THE DESIGN OF THE CORE NETWORKING PROTOCOL TCP (WHICH LATER BECAME TCP/IP) WERE CONCEIVED BY VINTON G. CERF AND ROBERT E. KAHN DURING 1973 WHILE CERF WAS AT STANFORD'S DIGITAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY AND KAHN WAS AT ARPA (LATER DARPA). IN THE SUMMER OF 1976, CERF LEFT STANFORD TO MANAGE THE PROGRAM WITH KAHN AT ARPA.

THEIR WORK BECAME KNOWN IN SEPTEMBER 1973 AT A NETWORKING CONFERENCE IN ENGLAND. CERF AND KAHN'S SEMINAL PAPER WAS PUBLISHED IN MAY 1974.

CERF, YOGEN K. DALAL, AND CARL SUNSHINE WROTE THE FIRST FULL TCP SPECIFICATION IN DECEMBER 1974. WITH THE SUPPORT OF DARPA, EARLY IMPLEMENTATIONS OF TCP (AND IP LATER) WERE TESTED BY BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN (BBN), STANFORD, AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON DURING 1975.

BBN BUILT THE FIRST INTERNET GATEWAY, NOW KNOWN AS A ROUTER, TO LINK NETWORKS TOGETHER. IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS, RESEARCHERS AT MIT AND USC-ISI, AMONG MANY OTHERS, PLAYED KEY ROLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SET OF INTERNET PROTOCOLS.

KEY STANFORD RESEARCH ASSOCIATES AND FOREIGN VISITORS

VINTON CERF DAG BELSNES JAMES MATHIS RONALD CRANE JUNIOR BOB METCALFE YOGEN DALAL DARRYL RUBIN JUDITH ESTRIN JOHN SHOCH RICHARD KARP CARL SUNSHINE

GERARD LE LANN KUNINOBU TANNO

DARPA ROBERT KAHN

COLLABORATING GROUPS

BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN WILLIAM PLUMMER • GINNY STRAZISAR • RAY TOMLINSON

MIT NOEL CHIAPPA • DAVID CLARK • STEPHEN KENT • DAVID P. REED

NDRE YNGVAR LUNDH • PAAL SPILLING

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON FRANK DEIGNAN • MARTINE GALLAND • PETER HIGGINSON ANDREW HINCHLEY • PETER KIRSTEIN • ADRIAN STOKES

USC-ISI ROBERT BRADEN • DANNY COHEN • DANIEL LYNCH • JON POSTEL

ULTIMATELY, THOUSANDS IF NOT TENS TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HAVE CONTRIBUTED THEIR EXPERTISE TO THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET.

DEDICATED 28 July 2005

J. C. R. Licklider

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (1915–1990) was a faculty member of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and researcher at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. He developed the idea of a universal computer network at the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). He headed the IPTO from 1962 to 1963, and again from 1974 to 1975. His 1960 paper "Man-Computer Symbiosis" envisions that mutually-interdependent, "living together", tightly coupled human brains and computing machines would prove to complement each other's strengths."Man-Computer Symbiosis" , J.C.R. Licklider, IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, vol. HFE-1, pp.4-11, Mar 1960

In 2013, Licklider was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame "pioneers" award by the Internet Society.

Paul Baran

Paul Baran (1926–2011) developed the field of redundant distributed networks while conducting research at RAND Corporation starting in 1960, when Baran began investigating the development of large-scale survivable communication networks. This led to a series of papers titled "On Distributed Communications" that in 1964 described a detailed architecture for distributed adaptive message block switching. The proposal was composed of three key ideas: use of a decentralized network with multiple paths between any two points; dividing user messages into message blocks; and delivery of these messages by store and forward switching. Baran's network design was never built; it was intended for voice communication using low-cost electronics and did not feature software switches.

Baran provided input to the ARPANET project on distributed communications and dynamic routing.

Baran received the inaugural SIGCOMM Award in 1989, the inaugural IEEE Internet Award in 2000 and the inaugural Internet Hall of Fame "pioneers" award from the Internet Society in 2012.2012 Inductees , Internet Hall of Fame website. Last accessed 24 April 2012

Donald Davies

Donald Davies (1924–2000) independently invented and named the concept of packet switching for data communications in 1965 at the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory (NPL). In the same year, he proposed a national commercial data network in the UK employing high-speed switching nodes. He refined his ideas in a paper written in 1966, which included the first description of an to act as a router. Later in 1966, he established a team which produced a design for a local-area network to serve the needs of NPL and prove the feasibility of packet switching while developing a more formal design proposal for a national network based on a high-level network connected to local networks.

Davies built the local-area NPL network, the first implementation of packet switching in early 1969 and the first to use high-speed links. His work influenced the ARPANET and research in Europe and Japan. He carried out simulation work on datagram networks on a scale to provide data communication to much of the United Kingdom and designed an adaptive method of congestion control, which he called . "As well as the packet switched network actually built at NPL for communication between their local computing facilities, some simulation experiments have been performed on larger networks. A summary of this work is reported in . The work was carried out to investigate networks of a size capable of providing data communications facilities to most of the U.K. ... Experiments were then carried out using a method of flow control devised by Davies called 'isarithmic' flow control. ... The simulation work carried out at NPL has, in many respects, been more realistic than most of the ARPA network theoretical studies."