Those who love the Internet can thank the US government for originating it in 1969. The Advance Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, was created in response to Cold War space advances and the launch of the satellite “Sputnik” by Russia. The U.S. Department of Defense felt it was essential to develop a method for communication between communication devices in the event that part of the existing communication networks were knocked out by bombing or other catastrophes.
As another technological advance prompted by the space race and the Cold War, the development of this high speed essential communication network combined with civilian research and scientific developments. The result was eventually today’s international commercialized internet. The government allowed and encouraged developments in both the computer science areas and internet improvements. There is resistance to government taxation of the internet, and it remains a free resource although users normally pay their ISP (Internet Service Provider) for accessibility to the internet.

Today, the Internet and computer access to it are very entwined into the everyday operations of government and its agencies around the country. Information, data, video, and files can be shared at the touch of a finger. This capability for storing and transmitting vast quantities of sensitive information has also led to research and vigilance against those who would hack into government information by using the internet to access government computer systems.

Scientists and university scholars continued to develop computers and the internet. The new World Wide Web (WWW) was invented in 1989 by English scientist Tim Berner-Lee. This helped allow the Internet to change away from pure science and military use to widespread commercial use. Although the terms are slightly different, most people today just use the word Internet when they actually may mean the World Wide Web.