Historical accounts of the Internet's origins tend to emphasize U.S. government investment and university-based researchers. In contrast, this article introduces actors who have been overlooked: the entrepreneurs and private firms that developed standards, evaluated competing standards, educated consumers about the value of new products, and built products to sell. Start-up companies such as 3Com and Cisco Systems succeeded because they met rapidly rising demand from users, particularly those in large organizations, who were connecting computers into networks and networks into internetworks. We consider a relatively brief yet dynamic period, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, when regulators attacked incumbent American firms, entrepreneurs flourished in new market niches, and engineers set industry standards for networking and internetworking. As a consequence, their combined efforts forged new processes and institutions for so-called open standards that, in turn, created the conditions favorable for the “network effects” that sustained the formative years of the digital economy.

互联网起源的历史记录往往强调美国政府投资和大学研究人员。相比之下，本文介绍了被忽视的参与者：制定标准、评估竞争标准、教育消费者了解新产品价值以及制造产品以销售的企业家和私营公司。3Com 和 Cisco Systems 等初创公司之所以成功，是因为它们满足了用户快速增长的需求，尤其是大型组织中的用户，他们将计算机连接到网络，将网络连接到互联网。我们考虑了一个相对短暂但充满活力的时期，从 1960 年代后期到 1980 年代后期，监管机构攻击现有的美国公司，企业家在新的市场利基市场蓬勃发展，和工程师为网络和互联网络设定了行业标准。因此，他们的共同努力为所谓的开放标准打造了新的流程和制度，进而为维持数字经济形成期的“网络效应”创造了有利条件。