RESEARCH COLLECTION / 04 OF 10
The Networked World.
Many networks. Distinct histories. Investigate packet switching, the ARPANET, internetworking, naming and the World Wide Web without collapsing them into one invention.
THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Internet and Web are not interchangeable
ARPANET experiments in 1969 and the Web project at CERN from 1989 onward are different developments connected through the use of network infrastructure.
Network architecture came from multiple teams
The Internet Society’s account identifies work at MIT, RAND and Britain’s NPL among the important parallel developments in packet switching.
The Web added a publishing and linking system
A 1989 CERN proposal described distributed hypertext; subsequent software made documents navigable through browsers and servers.
OPEN QUESTIONS
What would settle the record?
- Which network or layer does this claim concern?
- Does the evidence indicate an experiment, working service or public release?
- Are British, American and European contributions accurately distinguished?
BIBLIOGRAPHIC STARTING POINTS
Starting sources
These are identified materials to consult, not a claim that this collection has already completed exhaustive archival verification. Source types are marked to keep later interpretation distinct from contemporary evidence.
- 01Internet Society, “A Brief History of the Internet,” Leiner et al., 1997
Participant historical account
Open source record ↗ - 02Tim Berners-Lee, “Information Management: A Proposal,” March 1989 / May 1990, CERN Repository
Original proposal / archive record
Open source record ↗ - 03CERN, “A Short History of the Web”
Institutional historical account
Open source record ↗ - 04World Wide Web Consortium, “History”
Standards body historical account
Open source record ↗
Edition 1.0.0
8 October 2026. Initial collection overview, research questions and bibliography published. No original interviews, newly acquired artifacts, or independent experiments are claimed. Substantive future changes will be explained here.
Submit counterevidence or an attribution correction ↗