The word Internet short for inter-network was first coined in the 1960s to describe a small network of research computers linked together via the US telephone system. It began as an experimental method of sending text messages (emails) between computers in such a way that they could not be blocked: if one telephone exchange or run of cable was out of action then the message would find an alternative route through the system to reach its destination address. The important characteristic of the phone infrastructure which this text-based inter-network exploited was that it had no centre, no single point of control. A single message could be sent to everyone connected to the network who knew how to use a computer to pick it up. Conversely, everyone on the network could post individual messages at a single computer location, known as a bulletin board , where they could all be read by anyone else any time they logged on .

Back then, few people had access to a computer they were still room-sized machines but those whose employers ran one recognized the usefulness of a carrier which put one person into such a fluid dialogue with many people who shared the same interest. So word spread (via more established routes of personal and mass communication) and new text message networks sprang into being as different research institutions and university departments hooked their computers up to phone lines.

An important early move to standardize...