1966

As Robert Taylor becomes head of IPTO (Information Processing Technology Office of ARPA), he quickly realized that the installation of a network, which connects universities and research facilities in the country, was inevitable. The setup of such a network was not only in his behalf. Taylor rather tried to solve the problem of rapidly decreasing computer resources. The number of researchers grew steadily, thus the demand of computers increased as well, but the purchase of new computers was just too expensive for Taylor.

After a 20 minute discussion with the director of ARPA Charlie Herzfeld, he had the necessary funds to realize his idea of a computer network. Now he only needed a manager, capable of planning the installation of such a network. After a long seesaw, Taylor recruited young Larry Roberts for this purpose. Prior to his first day at ARPA, Roberts had already drawn a rudimentary scheme of the computer network. During the whole project he expanded this plan with painstaking drawings of network diagrams.