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

Corky Scott wrote:
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

This originated from Gore Campaign headquarters, I know because that is
where I first read it back in 2000! First it says that no one man
invented the internet, which is not true, Larry Roberts is credited for
inventing the internet!

Show me be bills Gore supposedly wrote! It says "Gore secured the
passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in
1991." Show me who wrote this, and how did Gore secure it? If he
created the internet, why did he not create this one bill? Did you
know that many in the industry considered this bill a hindrance? Did
you know the military released the internet to use by universitys way
back in the 70's? Did you know you could buy a dial up service and log
on the internet in the 80's?

On 2 Jun 2005 11:45:32 -0700, "Sport Pilot" wrote:

This originated from Gore Campaign headquarters, I know because that is
where I first read it back in 2000! First it says that no one man
invented the internet, which is not true, Larry Roberts is credited for
inventing the internet!

Lordy Sport Pilot, I weary of the chase. No, this did not originate
from the Gore Campaign Headquarters, what I copied and pasted was
written by two individuals who helped develop the internet.

In addition, Larry you only have to google "History of the internet"
to find that while Larry Roberts figured strongly in the initial
development of the internet, he was not the only one. See below:

*** Begin Quote ***

Origins of the Internet

The first recorded description of the social interactions that could
be enabled through networking was a series of memos written by J.C.R.
Licklider of MIT in August 1962 discussing his "Galactic Network"
concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers
through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any
site. In spirit, the concept was very much like the Internet of today.
Licklider was the first head of the computer research program at
DARPA, 4 starting in October 1962. While at DARPA he convinced his
successors at DARPA, Ivan Sutherland, Bob Taylor, and MIT researcher
Lawrence G. Roberts, of the importance of this networking concept.

Leonard Kleinrock at MIT published the first paper on packet switching
theory in July 1961 and the first book on the subject in 1964.
Kleinrock convinced Roberts of the theoretical feasibility of
communications using packets rather than circuits, which was a major
step along the path towards computer networking. The other key step
was to make the computers talk together. To explore this, in 1965
working with Thomas Merrill, Roberts connected the TX-2 computer in
Mass. to the Q-32 in California with a low speed dial-up telephone
line creating the first (however small) wide-area computer network
ever built. The result of this experiment was the realization that the
time-shared computers could work well together, running programs and
retrieving data as necessary on the remote machine, but that the
circuit switched telephone system was totally inadequate for the job.
Kleinrock's conviction of the need for packet switching was confirmed.

*** End Quote ***

Trust me, there is LOTS more I could have posted, none of which
mentions Larry Roberts' name, but does mention the many other people
who had a hand in developing the internet. It was a group effort and
according to the information above, Larry Roberts wasn't the first to
begin it.

I doubt that you'd believe that Gore helped the development of the
internet along if God were to tell you it was true. So I'm done with
this. (sound of cheering and applause) Yes, sorry I dragged it out
so long.

Corky Scott

PS, so what are you building Sport Pilot?

Corky Scott wrote:
On 2 Jun 2005 11:45:32 -0700, "Sport Pilot" wrote:

This originated from Gore Campaign headquarters, I know because that is
where I first read it back in 2000! First it says that no one man
invented the internet, which is not true, Larry Roberts is credited for
inventing the internet!

Lordy Sport Pilot, I weary of the chase. No, this did not originate
from the Gore Campaign Headquarters, what I copied and pasted was
written by two individuals who helped develop the internet.

In addition, Larry you only have to google "History of the internet"
to find that while Larry Roberts figured strongly in the initial
development of the internet, he was not the only one. See below:

*** Begin Quote ***

Origins of the Internet

The first recorded description of the social interactions that could
be enabled through networking was a series of memos written by J.C.R.
Licklider of MIT in August 1962 discussing his "Galactic Network"
concept. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers
through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any
site. In spirit, the concept was very much like the Internet of today.
Licklider was the first head of the computer research program at
DARPA, 4 starting in October 1962. While at DARPA he convinced his
successors at DARPA, Ivan Sutherland, Bob Taylor, and MIT researcher
Lawrence G. Roberts, of the importance of this networking concept.

Leonard Kleinrock at MIT published the first paper on packet switching
theory in July 1961 and the first book on the subject in 1964.
Kleinrock convinced Roberts of the theoretical feasibility of
communications using packets rather than circuits, which was a major
step along the path towards computer networking. The other key step
was to make the computers talk together. To explore this, in 1965
working with Thomas Merrill, Roberts connected the TX-2 computer in
Mass. to the Q-32 in California with a low speed dial-up telephone
line creating the first (however small) wide-area computer network
ever built. The result of this experiment was the realization that the
time-shared computers could work well together, running programs and
retrieving data as necessary on the remote machine, but that the
circuit switched telephone system was totally inadequate for the job.
Kleinrock's conviction of the need for packet switching was confirmed.

*** End Quote ***

Trust me, there is LOTS more I could have posted, none of which
mentions Larry Roberts' name, but does mention the many other people
who had a hand in developing the internet. It was a group effort and
according to the information above, Larry Roberts wasn't the first to
begin it.

I doubt that you'd believe that Gore helped the development of the
internet along if God were to tell you it was true. So I'm done with
this. (sound of cheering and applause) Yes, sorry I dragged it out
so long.

Corky Scott

PS, so what are you building Sport Pilot

That is the second time at least part of this has been posted. So now
we are going in circles. I suggest we stop this circle and kill this
thread. PLONK

On 2 Jun 2005 11:45:32 -0700, "Sport Pilot" wrote:

Show me be bills Gore supposedly wrote! It says "Gore secured the
passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in
1991."

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:SN00272:|TOM:/bss/d102query.html|

Enjoy the reading.


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

Rob Cherney wrote:
On 2 Jun 2005 11:45:32 -0700, "Sport Pilot" wrote:

Show me be bills Gore supposedly wrote! It says "Gore secured the
passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in
1991."

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:SN00272:|TOM:/bss/d102query.html|

Enjoy the reading.


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

Reading the bill only proves my point. This is not about the internet,
this is only about computer and network use in the government. In 1991
the internet was in commercial use, without Gore's help.

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

Rob Cherney wrote:
...
That senator was Newt Gingrich.


Great story but Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House.

--

FF

Corky Scott wrote:

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.

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

So, Corky, do you know see why I also put "invented" in quotes or does
it still escape you?


Matt

asdf

Matt Whiting wrote:
Corky Scott wrote:

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.


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


So, Corky, do you know see why I also put "invented" in quotes or does
it still escape you?


Matt