List of Internet pioneers

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Instead of having a single inventor, the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following people are Internet pioneers who have been recognized for their contribution to its early and ongoing development. These contributions include theoretical foundations, building early networks, specifying protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.

This list includes people who were:

• acknowledged by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in their seminal 1974 paper on internetworking, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication";^[1] or
• received the IEEE Internet Award; or have been
• inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame; or are
• included on the Stanford University "Birth of the Internet" plaque.^[2]

Among the pioneers, along with Cerf and Kahn, Bob Metcalfe, Donald Davies, Louis Pouzin, Steve Crocker and Ray Tomlinson meet three out of the four criteria above; as well as Jon Postel, considering the 2003 IEEE Internet award on which he is posthumously cited. Davies and Kahn are featured in the 1972 documentary film Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing along with several early pioneers.

Other Internet pioneers, who made notable contributions to the development of the Internet but do not meet any of the four criteria above, are listed in the final section of the article.

The pioneers are listed in rough chronological order, reflecting the process through which the Internet developed.