Year Chapter Notable Event
1990 2,3 NSF conducts conversations about privatization 3 PSINet and UUNET begin first full year as private firms
1991 3 High Performance Computing Act of 1991 passed 4 Tim Berners-Lee downloads code for web to shareware sites 3 Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) founded
1992 3 Network Solutions takes control of domain name service 3 Rick Boucher sponsors a bill to amend NSF charter 3 Internet Society founded and IETF becomes part of it
1993 3 Final NSF plan for privatization emerges, and NSF solicits bids 4 Mosaic browser made for Unix and Windows OS 5 Earliest ads for ISPs appear in Boardwatch Magazine
1994 4 Founding of the World Wide Web Consortium 4 Mosaic Communications Company (MCC) founded 4 MCC changes names to Netscape, and releases a beta browser
1995 4 Apache formed from different versions of NCSA HTTPd server 3 NSFNET shutdown, and Internet backbound privatized 5 Netscape IPO and Windows 95 launched in same month
1996 5 Congress passes the 1996 Telecommunications Act 5 More than 2,000 ISPs advertise in Boardwatch Magazine
Year Chapter Notable EventPublisher, Princeton University Press, makes the following info available publicly. https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9781400874293/how-the-internet-became-commercial
1992 7 David Clarke speaks of "Rough Consensus and Running Code" 7 Internet society founded and IETF becomes part of it 7 Tim Berners-Lee first visits the IETF to standardize the web
1993 8 Louis Gerstner hired at CEO at IBM 7 CERN renounces ownership rights to World Wide Web code 8 Earliest ads for ISPs appear in Boardwatch Magazine
1994 6 Vermeer founded, begins work on web-authoring tool 7 Tim Berners-Lee founds the World Wide Web Consortium 6 Brad Silverberg organizes team at Microsoft to examine web
1995 6 Gates circulates the memo,. "The Internet Tidal Wave" 6,7 Netscape IPO and the launch of Windows 95 9 HoTMaiL founded, and "viral marketing" is invented
1996 8 Microsoft offers Internet Explorer at a price of zero 8 AT&T WorldNet sold at $19.95 for unlimited service 8 AOL implements all-you-can-eat pricing
1997 8 56K modems first introduced 10 Tiered structure emerges among Internet data carriers 9 Netscape and Microsoft reach parity in browser features
1998 10 WorldCom merges with MCI, spins off backbone assets 8 Over 65,000 phone numbers available for dial-up ISPs
1999 9 Dot-com boom reaches greatest height 10 WorldCom proposed merger with Sprint is called off
2000 8 Boardwatch Magazine records over 7,000 ISPs 9 Internet adoption near saturation in medium/large businesses
"In less than a decade, the Internet went from being a series of loosely connected networks used by universities and the military to the powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from entrepreneurs and iconoclasts who were outside the mainstream—and how the commercialization of the Internet was by no means a foregone conclusion at its outset.
Shane Greenstein traces the evolution of the Internet from government ownership to privatization to the commercial Internet we know today. This is a story of innovation from the edges. Greenstein shows how mainstream service providers that had traditionally been leaders in the old-market economy became threatened by innovations from industry outsiders who saw economic opportunities where others didn't - and how these mainstream firms had no choice but to innovate themselves. New models were tried: some succeeded, some failed. Commercial markets turned innovations into valuable products and services as the Internet evolved in those markets. New business processes had to be created from scratch as a network originally intended for research and military defense had to deal with network interconnectivity, the needs of commercial users, and a host of challenges with implementing innovative new services. How the Internet Became Commercial demonstrates how, without any central authority, a unique and vibrant interplay between government and private industry transformed the Internet. Awards and Recognition Co-Winner of the 2016 Schumpeter Prize Competition, International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society "