Inc. Magazine: “My name is Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan, and my dad is a founding father of the internet. From 1979 through 1981, my father, Major Joseph Haughney, ran one of the earliest versions of the internet, called the Arpanet. Back then, the Arpanet was a military-run project that allowed academics to do research if they had a defense angle. But of course, it wasn’t long before word got out about how much fun could be had on the Arpanet. The Arpanet started filling up with people meeting, debating their favorite Chinese restaurants, and even falling in love — all online. That’s what drove my dad crazy and frankly scared him. He drafted letters, articles, and reports warning of the “computer freaks” he feared could turn his beloved Arpanet into something incredibly destructive. Like any well-meaning dad, my father tried to protect me from many things. He applied that same protective instinct to the broader world, being the internet’s original content moderator — the Cassandra warning about online harm, the “not on my watch” guy trying to rein in a raucous crowd. For years, my dad encouraged me to tell the story of his work during that time. He hinted at the egos and the infighting that took place with every step of innovation that led to the modern economy and the world we live in now. But I always told him I was too busy for his story. His worries were overblown. The internet economy was an invention I saw drive my career, where businesses were built and fortunes were minted. Then I became a tech editor who has shepherded dozens of stories about the terrible things that have happened on the internet. I also became a mom trying to keep up with what the internet has done to my own children. Now that my father has dementia, time is running out to find out what happened in those early days. So I spent the past 10 months traveling the country interviewing my father and other people he worked with who built the first internet, sent some of the first messages, and conceived of the precursors to wireless to collect their stories before it’s too late. I learned about the battles for credit that some founders have even waged on their deathbeds, explored whether the French actually deserve more credit for the internet, and studied how much some founding fathers foresaw the consequences of their early inventions. This podcast is a tribute to my dad in his final days to let him know how much this history matters and to honor his role in creating the world we live in now…”