Article History of the Internet

"If we could look in on the future at say, the year 2000, would we
see a unity, a federation, or a fragmentation? That is: would we see a
single multi-purpose network encompassing all applications and serving
everyone? Or a more or less coherent system of intercommunicating
networks? Or an incoherent assortment of isolated noncommunicating
networks... The middle alternative--the more or less coherent network
of networks-- appears to have a fairly high probability and also to be
desirable..."  [Licklider and Vezza 1978, p. 1342]

FROM ARPANET TO INTERNET

An "internet" is a connected set of networks, such as those using
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). When
used in conjunction, this suite of protocols is referred to as TCP/IP.
"The Internet" usually refers to the connected TCP/IP internets.
Networks based on other systems, such as OSI might also be considered
internets and part of the Internet. Often this definition is expanded
to include all the other networks which have connections to the
Internet, such as BITNET, Janet and Usenet.