Origin Stories and the Internet

There are a large list of origin stories and myths surrounding the ‘net. Some are far better than others. Given a recent (significantly misguided) piece by WSJ a quick couple of responses have gone up at Ars (not bad, not great) and by Robert Graham (pretty good). I’m not going to write an origin myth – though I’ve got one that I’m writing for future publication, and have been ‘teaching the myth’ to students of late – but in no particular order is a list of good/interesting books on the topic.

• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
• Inventing the Internet (Inside Technology)
• Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet
• The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s On-line Pioneers