It was restricted to university and government researchers, students, and private corporations. But for the next 20 years, the internet wasn’t accessible to the public. New networks formed, connecting universities and research centers across the globe. That sparked a revolution in computer networking. Governments and universities across the globe thought it would be great if the machines could talk, nurturing collaboration and scientific breakthroughs.ĪRPANET was the first successful networking project and in 1969 the first message was sent from the computer science lab at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to Stanford Research Institute (SRI), also in California.
But progress was swift, and by 1960 they were able to run complex programs.
In 1950, computers took up whole rooms and were dumber than today’s pocket calculators.