In the session Noel Packard will narrate how she developed infographics to chart the socio-economic, legislative and political history of the military networks transformation into the privatised Internet.

There will be a Q&A session and anyone interested in how the Internet was commercialised is invited to bring questions and discussion. Noel collaborated with New Zealand (Milan Law and Hannah Day) and the US (Emma Ryan and Boman Communications) graphic designers to design infographics that illustrate the phased testing, distribution and commercialisation history of pre-Internet, military networks, like the Advanced Research Projects Agency Networks (ARPANET) and Michnet (Michigan Networks).

Noel Packard is an interdisciplinary social scientist who is mapping the pre-history of the Internet based on research from her 2023 University of Auckland, Media, Film, and Television PhD, entitled, "Exploiting and Neutralising the ‘Communist Threat’ for the Privatised Internet". She illustrates the phased testing, distribution and commercialisation history of early military networks, like the Advanced Research Projects Agency Networks (ARPANET) and Michnet (Michigan Networks).

Using these collaboratively made, Internet enhanced, info-graphic timelines, she describes how the Internet was tested, distributed and commercialised, discusses why we don't demarcate Internet history and proposes a way to differentiate non-Internet years (pre-1960), from the Cold War years (1960-1995), and the post- Internet years (1995- present), for more accurate historical-comparative, social science, and history.