The History Of The Internet And World Wide Web

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and Washington..." (Diamond & Bates, 1995)
Clearly, there was a technology gap, and the US was on the wrong side. In response, the Department of Defense (DoD) created a new Operations Research group called the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). One of ARPA’s first priorities was to organize and fund research on how to utilize computers in command, control, and communication, called C3 by military planners (Diamond &Bates, 1996). Such a research effort was well beyond the means of the military, and indeed the computing industry. The DoD knew they had to pool the best computer science experts in the country and give them a wide berth in their development work. This support for a
In October 1962, Dr. J.C.R. Licklider was recruited from Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN) to lead this effort in C3. He commented that:

"We owe a great deal to ARPA for not circumscribing directions
that people took in those days. I like to believe that the purpose
of the military is to support ARPA, and the purpose of ARPA is
to support research." (Licklider, as quoted by Hauben, 1995)

After Licklider's arrival, the department's contracts were shifted from independent corporations towards academic computer centers. The current computing mode at the time was batch processing, a tedious and ineffective process. Licklider saw that improvements could be made in C3 only through advancing the current state of computing technology. He particularly wanted to move into the age of interactive computing, something the current contractors were not doing. To progress tow he formed his department into a far-reaching research program for advanced technology. Because of this departure from conventional methodology, Licklider’s office was renamed the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) (Haffner, 1996).
Licklider considered communications an essential element in the future of computing. While at ARPA he convinced his succe...