The Origins of Networks: From Research Policies to Internet Politics

What is the Internet utopia and when was it defined? This chapter looks back at the beginnings of networked computing, born at the intersection of the industrial, administrative and scientific fields. Discussing the hypothesis of an exclusively military origin of the Internet, it rather restores the intertwined logics and interests that presided over the development of the first information and communication networks. It shows that the Internet project gradually became a socio-political infrastructure run by a community of pioneers bringing together hackers, journalists and computer scientists. In this microcosm emerged the first claims of independence of the cyberspace, opposed to the intervention of governments in the digital sphere.