The Internet Explained
http://www.searchandgo.com/articles/internet/net-explained-1.php
  peer-reviewed

Vincent Zegna
Search and Go
2005

Abstract:

The exponential growth of the Internet has been phenomenal. Or has it? Perhaps it is only to be expected when the cumulative acts of creation culminate in the proliferation of Mankind's greatest achievement: the ability to communicate... Some 45 years ago the search for knowledge was no less insatiable but the storage, collation, selection and retrieval technologies were rudimentary and the expense enormous by today's standards....