Off topic, Gore and the internet (don't read if not interested)

To be merciful, I've changed the subject heading so that those who
don't care to read any more about this subject can simply delete it or
skip over without opening it.

I figured that there had to be more to Gore's one liner. Politicians
don't normally feed ammunition to the opposition so I looked around to
find some information on exactly what it was Gore did in regards the
development of the internet. His contributions appear to be
considerable. Following is a quote from a website listing them:

*** Begin Quote ***

Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine. What Al Gore claimed was:

During my service in the United States Congress I took the
initiative in creating the Internet.

A statement that is, in fact, true. All any politician can do to
assist in any venture is to get a bill written to provide funding. Al
Gore did that. At the time, he was considered a space case by his
fellow Senators for insisting that the Internet would be important.
Phillip Hallam-Baker of the web development team at CERN said:

In the early days of the Web, he was a believer, not after the
fact when our success was already established -- he gave us help when
it counted. He got us the funding to set up at MIT after we got kicked
out of CERN for being too successful. He also personally saw to it
that the entire federal government set up Web sites. Before the White
House site went online, he would show the prototype to each agency
director who came into his office. At the end he would click on the
link to their agency site. If it returned 'Not Found' the said
director got a powerful message that he better have a Web site before
he next saw the veep.

....and the creators of TCP/IP said this:

Al Gore and the Internet

By Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf

Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance
of the Internet and to promote and support its development.

No one person or even small group of persons exclusively
"invented" the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing
collaboration among people in government and the university community.
But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core
protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP
Gore's contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President.
No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater
contribution over a longer period of time.

Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on
his role. He said: "During my service in the United States Congress I
took the initiative in creating the Internet." We don't think, as some
people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he "invented" the
Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while
serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and
beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the
matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long
before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our
perspective.

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of
high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth
and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first
elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to
have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and
scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an
unproven and controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started
in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the
mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not
deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages
of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership
by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed
computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on
how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like
coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters
and other crises.

As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to
consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and
unconnected networks into an "Interagency Network." Working in a
bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush's
administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance
Computing and Communications Act in 1991. This "Gore Act" supported
the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that
became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond
the field of computer science.

As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and
out, as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the
government agencies that spawned it. He served as the major
administration proponent for continued investment in advanced
computing and networking and private sector initiatives such as Net
Day. He was and is a strong proponent of extending access to the
network to schools and libraries. Today, approximately 95% of our
nation's schools are on the Internet. Gore provided much-needed
political support for the speedy privatization of the Internet when
the time arrived for it to become a commercially-driven operation.

There are many factors that have contributed to the Internet's
rapid growth since the later 1980s, not the least of which has been
political support for its privatization and continued support for
research in advanced networking technology. No one in public life has
been more intellectually engaged in helping to create the climate for
a thriving Internet than the Vice President. Gore has been a clear
champion of this effort, both in the councils of government and with
the public at large.

The Vice President deserves credit for his early recognition of
the value of high speed computing and communication and for his
long-term and consistent articulation of the potential value of the
Internet to American citizens and industry and, indeed, to the rest of
the world.

*** End Quote ***

So it appears that Gore championed the internet, going against the
tide at the time. His statement "I initiated the creation of the
internet" would seem to be based in fact, since he was the lone
supporter in it's early stages. This is why he's being given the
award mentioned in some of the posts.

Corky Scott