The Internet was created by hundreds of people over several decades; some of those mentioned in this site are listed below.

The Internet

Paul Baran -- Invented the concept of packet switched networks.

Robert Braden -- Led development of RFC's 1122 and 1123, Requirements for Internet Hosts.

Vannevar Bush -- Wrote the first visionary description of the potential uses for information technology.

Vinton Cerf -- Co-designer of the Internet TCP/IP networking protocol.

Lance Cottrell -- Invented the mixmaster remailer and the original Anonymizer.com web anonymizer.

Dave Crocker -- Worked on some of the early email applications.

Stephen Crocker -- Organized the Request For Comments documents.

Donald Davies -- Independently invented packet-switching.

Ellis, Cocks, and Williamson -- Worked in secret on public key cryptography.

Robert Kahn -- Co-designer of the Internet TCP/IP networking protocol.

Leonard Kleinrock -- Pioneered digital network analysis, and helped build the ARPANET.

Ed Krol -- Led the team that established the NSFNET, and wrote two of the first comprehensive surveys of the Internet.

J.C.R. Licklider -- Popularized the concept of a universal network throughout DARPA and influenced his successors.

Marshall McLuhan -- Popularized the concept of the global village throughout the world.

Merkle, Diffie, and Hellman -- First discovered and published the concept of public key cryptography.

Jean Armour Polly -- First popularized the phrase "surfing the Internet"

Jonathon Postel -- Managed the IANA; RFC Editor for 25 years.

Joyce K. Reynolds -- Supported IANA. Now the RFC Editor.

Dennis Ritchie -- Helped develop the Unix operating system and C programming language.

Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman -- Discovered the first workable public key algorithm.

Lawrence Roberts -- Program Manager for the ARPANET.

Ben Segal -- Helped Europe convert to TCP/IP via the EUnet.

Richard Stallman -- Launched the GNU operating system.

Ken Thompson -- Led development of the Unix operating system.

Linus Torvalds -- Developed the kernel, Linux, often used with the GNU system.

Norbert Wiener -- Developed the field of Cybernetics.

World Wide Web

Jean-François Abramatic -- The first chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Marc Andreessen -- Led the team that invented the first widely popular web browser, called Mosaic.

Tim Berners-Lee -- Developed the first web server, browser, and editor.

Robert Cailliau -- Collaborated with Berners-Lee on development of the web at CERN.

Douglas Engelbart -- Developed the mouse, the graphical user interface, and the first working hypertext system.

Ted Nelson -- First invented the concept of hypertext.

Usenet Newsgroups

Steve Bellovin -- Wrote the first Netnews Usenet program.

Steve Daniel -- Wrote a second, more capable Netnews program.

Jim Ellis -- Co-conceiver of the idea of Usenet.

Mark Horton -- First connected the ARPANET to the USENET.

Brian Kantor -- Helped develop the NNTP protocol.

Phil Lapsley -- Helped develop the NNTP protocol.

Brian Reid -- Helped created the alt hierarchy.

Gene Spafford -- Formalized the early Usenet backbone.

Tom Truscott -- Co-conceiver of the idea of Usenet.

Electronic Mail

Ray Tomlinson -- Developed the first email program for the ARPANET.

John Vittal -- Developed the first modern email program.

Barry Wessler -- Improved the ARPANET email program.

Marty Yonke -- Integrated one of the first email programs.

Mailing Lists

Brent Chapman -- Developed the Majordomo mailing list software.

Lars Huttar -- Helped develop the modern Internet Oracle.

Steve Kinzler -- Helped develop the modern Internet Oracle.

Anastasios Kotsikonas -- Developed the Listproc mailing list software.

Peter Langston -- Developed the original Internet Oracle.

Eric Thomas -- Developed the Listserv mailing list software.

Internet Relay Chat

Simon Marsh -- Developed the Elsewhere talker program.

Jarkko Oikarinen -- Developed Internet Relay Chat.

Daniel Stephens -- Developed the second talker program.

Chris Thompson -- Developed the first talker program.

Murray Turoff -- Developed the first multi-machine chat system.

Jacques Vallee -- Developed the PLANET chat system.

Multi-User Dungeons

Jim Aspnes -- Wrote the first TinyMUD.

Richard Bartle -- Took over development of MUD1 from Trubshaw.

Will Crowther -- Developed the early computer game Adventure.

Pavel Curtis -- Developed the idea of the MOO.

Lars Pensjl -- Helped develop the original LPMUD.

Roy Trubshaw -- Developed the first MUD.