In 1961, a series of independent research teams began developing packet switching and the beginnings of what would eventually become TCP/IP, the basic protocol that defines how information is exchanged over the Net. In 1967, ARPA's Lawrence Roberts published his "Plan for the ARPANet" computer network, which built on these new technologies to propose an architectural design for a worldwide network.
Over the next several years, this test-tube Internet grew steadily but unremarkably a government agencies, universities, and corporations continued to develop and hammer out protocols and architectures. Email and the Internet made their first public appearances in 1972 at the Internet Computer Communication Conference. In1973 and 1974, the protocol known as TCP/IP emerged in essentially its current form, although the same group of collaborators would continue to refine it throughthe early 1980s.
Once the protocols were in place, the various developers formulated much of the software and services that make up the Internet. The basic services for connecting tofiles remotely (via Telnet), transferring files over the Net (via FTP), and sending and receiving electronic mail appeared in the mid- and late 1970s. The Usenet new system first appeared in 1979 as an offshoot of the rise of Unix. The World Wide Web began in 1989.
In 1990, the U.S. government officially decommissioned ARPANet, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) took over the role of managing the Internetbackbone, which was then called the NSFNet. In 1995, the NSF in turn withdrew,turning the backbone over to a consortium of commercial providers.