On 3 Jun 2005 10:26:36 -0700, "Sport Pilot" wrote:

Reading the bill only proves my point. This is not about the internet,
this is only about computer and network use in the government.

Not exactly. While the bill was geared toward a research and
education network, there were specific requirements regarding
commercialization.

In 1991 the internet was in commercial use, without Gore's help.

True enough.

But on the other hand, Gore can be credited with giving the technology
the visibility in Congress that it deserved--right at the point in
time where there was critical mass. We won't ever know fast or slow
the technolgoy would have developed without his efforts.

To quote a former high-profile senator who was there at the time:

"In all fairness, it's something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore
is not the father of the Internet, but in all fairness Gore is the
person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure
that we got to an Internet. And the truth is--and I worked with him
starting in 1978 when I got there--we were both part of a 'futures
group.' The fact is, in the Clinton administration the world we had
talked about in the '80s began to actually happen. You can see it in
your own life, between the Internet, the computer, the cellphone."

That senator was Newt Gingrich.

That's it for me and this subject. I need to get back to refinishing
a prop.

Rob-
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Robert Cherney e-mail: rcherney(at)comcast(dot)net