ARPANET – an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite
TCP/IP which later became a technical foundation of the Internet.
Merit Network – a computer network created in 1966 to connect the mainframe computers at universities that is currently the oldest running regional computer network in the United States.
CYCLADES – a French research network created in the early 1970s that pioneered the concept of packet switching, and was developed to explore alternatives to the ARPANET design.
Computer Science Network (CSNET) – a computer network created in the United States for computer science departments at academic and research institutions that could not be directly connected to ARPANET, due to funding or authorization limitations. It played a significant role in spreading awareness of, and access to, national networking and was a major milestone on the path to development of the global Internet.
Censorship – the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or "inconvenient" as determined by government authorities or by community consensus.
Internet censorship – the control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet enacted by regulators or
self-censorship.
Content control software – a type of software that restricts or controls the content an Internet user is capable to access.
Domain name registry or Network Information Center (NIC) – a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the
Domain Name System of the Internet that allow third party entities to request administrative control of a domain name.
Private sub-domain registry – an NIC which allocates domain names in a subset of the Domain Name System under a domain registered with an ICANN-accredited or
ccTLD registry.
Internet Society (ISOC) – an American non-profit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet-related standards, education, access, and policy.
InterNIC (historical) – the organization primarily responsible for
Domain Name System (DNS)
domain name allocations until 2011 when it was replaced by ICANN.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – a nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.
Google – an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Cultural and societal implications of the Internet
Sociology of the Internet – the application of sociological theory and methods to the Internet, including analysis of online communities, virtual worlds, and organizational and social change catalyzed through the Internet.
Digital sociology – a sub-discipline of sociology that focuses on understanding the use of digital media as part of everyday life, and how these various technologies contribute to patterns of human behavior, social relationships and concepts of the self.