Established in 1969 by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), the ARPANET, a wide-area network (WAN), linked universities and research centers—such as the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Utah, and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). All of these centers were involved in developing new networking technologies. ARPANET was to research how to utilize DARPA’s investment in computers through Command and Control Research (CCR). The first leader of ARPANET, Dr. J.C.R. Licklider, was focused on moving the department’s contracts away from independent corporations and pushing them toward the best academic computer centers. Another major function of ARPANET was to act as a redundant network capable of surviving a nuclear war.

See Also: Computer; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Network; Wide Area Network (WAN).