Robert William Taylor is best known for initially conceiving, and then directing, the development of ARPAnet in the 1960s. Taylor was also involved in fostering many new technologies that eventually became widely accepted essentials of computer and communication systems.

ARPAnet, the acronym for Advanced Research Projects Agency network, was the "supernetwork" of defense research networks that eventually evolved into the Internet. While working as the director of the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Taylor saw enthusiastic users crowd around each group of interactive terminals that were connected to three separate computer systems. Taylor felt that the projects he was overseeing could be more efficient if these three isolated systems would merge. He therefore proposed the creation of ARPAnet.

ARPAnet covered a fairly large geographical area that eventually consisted of about 60,000 computer systems. The original ARPAnet--the first computer network--was established...