Al Gore and the Internet

Oct 1 19:08 UTC 2000

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:43:58 -0400
From: vinton g. cerf <vcerf@MCI.NET>
To: Declan McCullaugh <declan@well.com>, farber@cis.upenn.edu
Cc: rkahn@cnri.reston.va.us
Subject: Al Gore and the Internet

Dave and Declan,

I am taking the liberty of sending to you both a brief summary of Al
Gore's Internet involvement, prepared by Bob Kahn and me. As you know,
there have been a seemingly unending series of jokes chiding the vice
president for his assertion that he "took the initiative in creating the
Internet." 

Bob and I believe that the vice president deserves significant
credit for his early recognition of the importance of what has
become the Internet.

I thought you might find this short summary of sufficient interest to
share it with Politech and the IP lists, respectively. 


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
wh 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
intiative 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 pasage 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. 

response 2 of 51:

Oct 1 19:44 UTC 2000

Your response leads me to believe that you didn't actually read the entire
article, Jamie.

response 4 of 51:

Oct 1 22:55 UTC 2000

Vint Cerf was a very smart man, 20 years ago. And, we should thank him for
making the amino acid of what we know as the Internet. 

But, he's not the genius people make him out to be.

response 8 of 51:

Oct 2 14:17 UTC 2000

That depends on how you define the Internet...  merely tehchnically, or as
a social entity. Gore certainly had a significant role in creating the social
meme "Internet,."

But then, you techies usually dismiss comments like that as liberal arts
doublespeak, even though I'm fairly certain that's what Gore meant.

In short, we liberal arts sorts understood what he meant, he didn't mean what
you think he meant, so stop getting your communal panties in a bunch.

response 10 of 51:

Oct 2 15:27 UTC 2000

Oh, come on. The guy is only human.

You can argue how much credit he should actually be given, but it seems to me
that he did support its development at some point along the way and should be
give credit for that.

response 12 of 51:

Oct 2 16:59 UTC 2000

In 1994, when Mosaic first started appearing in various places, Gore had been
hyping the "Information Superhighway" for a few years.  I remember lots of
people looking at Mosaic and asking, "is this the Information Superhighway?"
The standard answer seemed to be that no, the "Information Superhighway" was
something else yet to come, but the Internet and Mosaic's successors seem to
have now taken on the role that was envisioned for whatever Gore was talking
about.  I wonder if the Net would have caught on so quickly without such a
high profile spokesman.

response 16 of 51:

Oct 3 15:14 UTC 2000

Explains how Grex spawned from M-Net users.

response 18 of 51:

Oct 4 01:32 UTC 2000

That's not what he said.  GREX spawned from m-net users, not grex users.

response 20 of 51:

Oct 4 16:00 UTC 2000

Does everything have to be spelled out for you?

response 22 of 51:

Oct 4 17:13 UTC 2000

And twinkie's drawing crayon drawings of me doing that, since he's waiting
for the bus too.
;}

response 24 of 51:

Oct 4 18:43 UTC 2000

        Re #19:

        It's sort of like how Jesus is the Son, but he's also the Father, and
they're all really the same thing, and it's just one of those unknowable
mystery-type things since Athanasius bullied his philosophies into political
correctness.