![]() ![]() 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. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept. 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. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective.Īs 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. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. 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. 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. Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on his role. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time. 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. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. No one person or even small group of persons exclusively "invented" the Internet. (The components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continually being modified, improved, and expanded.)īut a spirited defense of Gore's statement penned by Internet pioneers Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf (the latter often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in 2000 noted that "Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development" and that "No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time":Īl Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development. How justified Gore's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" might be can be a subject of debate, as statements about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet are difficult to evaluate because the Internet is not a homogeneous entity (rather, it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it spring into being all at once. ![]() ![]() Everyone would have understood that Eisenhower meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with interview remarks about the Internet. If, for example, Dwight Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while president, "took the initiative in creating the Interstate Highway System," he would not have been the subject of dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. The claim that Gore was actually trying to take credit for the "invention" of the Internet was plainly just derisive political posturing that arose out of a close presidential campaign. In context, Gore's response (which employed the word "created," not "invented") was clear in meaning: the vice president was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet in the sense of having thought up, designed, or implemented it, but rather asserting that he was one of the visionaries responsible for helping to bring it into being by fostering its development in an economic and legislative sense. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part): "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. ![]()
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