Al Gore to Receive Internet Achievement Award

whoever57 writes "The folks behind the Webby Awards want to 'set the record straight' regarding Al Gore's contributions to the Internet. They plan to give him a Lifetime Achievement award. 'It's just one of those instances someone did amazing work for three decades as congressman, senator and vice president and it got spun around into this political mess...'"

Information Superhighway

[Anonymousse Custard]

Thus spake the article:

He popularized the term "information superhighway" as vice president.

I guess he thought "free porn pipeline" wouldn't be as catchy.

Re:Information Superhighway

[Craig_P92669]

I guess he thought "free porn pipeline" wouldn't be as catchy.

No, his boss already copyrighted that one.

Re:Information Superhighway

[PsychicX]

He's not taking credit for creating the internet, although people are trying to falsely pin it on him. But as far as the legislative and government side is concerned with the internet, he was the primary drive and power behind it. And considering all of you (and me) are internet addicts, doing silly things like posting on slashdot, I think maybe we owe him a bit of thanks.

Re:Information Superhighway

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't Al Gore want to put the Internet in a "lock box"?

Re:Information Superhighway

[cuzality]

Didn't Al Gore want to put the Internet in a "lock box"?

That was his strategery.

Re:Information Superhighway

[fbjon]

=== Message to all prospective readers:

Posts below this are mostly a few 10 posts multiplied by 200 rehashing the same old crap you've seen a thousand times. For preservation of sanity, close window and read next news story instead. At the very least, read at +4 or something.

Quick summary:

* "Al gore didn't inven't the internet! whine whine"

* "But he didn't say that [link to snopes]! whine whine"

* Al Gore said something to the effect that he helped create the thing. Before that, it was kinda small. After that (now) it is huge. He provided some driving force. Therefore, an award can be seen as justified.

* "But what about all the people before that also invented it! nasal whine"

* "But he didn't say exactly that! whining getting high-pitched"

Re:Information Superhighway

[badmammajamma]

You're either a moron or a liar. Either way, too bad for you. Here's the exact text of what he said, word for word:

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

He NEVER said he invented the internet. He is just as responsible for creating the intern

Re:Information Superhighway

[Obfuscant]

Here's the exact text of what he said, word for word:

... I took the initiative in creating the Internet.

He NEVER said he invented the internet.

No, just that he "took the initiative" in creating it. After it was already created. The truth is, of course, that the Internet had been created before he got to the Senate, and one cannot "create" what someone else has already created.

Now, what he probably MEANT to say is that he took the initiative for further funding of the Internet and taking it out of the hands of the researchers and opening it to the vast unwashed hordes, but sadly, that is not what he actually said, as you have pointed out. "Creating" and "funding" are not the same thing. I will not debate whether or not he took initiatives in funding expansion of what others created.

Since Democrats take great pleasure in quoting every slip of the tongue every Republican ever made, I think it quite fair for Gore to be gored by the same ox. He made a patently absurd claim in a bid to gain the techno-geek vote, and it backfired on him. Whether it was deliberate or a true slip, we'll never know, but he's supposed to be intelligent enough to know the difference between "create" and "fund", so the inferrence is the former. However, politicians are a little weak on differentiating between the two, and maybe he's one of them, so maybe it was a slip.

He is just as responsible for creating the internet as Lee, DARPA, or anyone else.

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Providing further funding for something that has already been created is not creating, not claiming "just as responsible" is just ludicrous.

You're either a moron or a liar.

Those who claim he did not say what he certainly did say are the liars. Those who cannot differentiate between "fund" and "create" are the morons. I'm not the one trying to rewrite history.

Re:Information Superhighway

[gurps_npc]

1) You have admitted that you are wrong about the exact quote.

Now you try to weasel y our way out of being wrong by pretending that what he actuallly said is close enough to the lie you made up, that it doesn't matter.

2) The man took credit for something he did. Did he slightly exaggerate his effect? Possibly. Did the republicans COMPLETELY exaggerate what he claimed? Definitely. So the question becomes, is it more an exaggeration to lie when you claim he said 'invented the internet' when he instea

Re:Information Superhighway

[GOD_ALMIGHTY]

Since Democrats take great pleasure in quoting every slip of the tongue every Republican ever made, I think it quite fair for Gore to be gored by the same ox.

You'd have a point if Gore was lying, but he wasn't. Perhaps you had some examples of simple "slips of the tongue" that Democrats used to railroad public sentiment with that you'd like to share?

Whether it was deliberate or a true slip, we'll never know, but he's supposed to be intelligent enough to know the difference between "create" and "fund", so the inferrence is the former. However, politicians are a little weak on differentiating between the two, and maybe he's one of them, so maybe it was a slip.

I can't take this criticism seriously from anyone who would support Bush, or half the GOP leadership. Let's go counting slips... lies... untruths. Seriously, anytime, you'll find much more factual accuracy in Democrat's speech than in Republicans. You're correct the deliberateness not being important, I've said all along that the Bush Administration is either lying or incompetent. I don't care which one, both are unacceptable.

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Providing further funding for something that has already been created is not creating, not claiming "just as responsible" is just ludicrous.

You must be new here on this Internet thingy... let me introduce you to some folks... Vincent Cerf aka Father of the Internet, Marc Andreesen aka co-founder of Netscape. Anyway, they both back Gore's claims 100%. Andreesen claims he couldn't have written Mosaic without a High Performance Computing Act Grant. That would be a Grant that Gore wrote the legislation for.

Those who claim he did not say what he certainly did say are the liars. Those who cannot differentiate between "fund" and "create" are the morons. I'm not the one trying to rewrite history.

Those who knowingly twist meaning to get their intended result are liars. Those who are pentantic about language when the evidence points the other direction are the morons. You may not be rewriting, but you're coloring it with your bias and replacing it's context with a new one based on fantasy. To which, your only defense will be to wildly claim that the other side does it too. Such rambling only points to the poverty of your political positions, not any insight into the facts of the matter.

Re:Information Superhighway

[Anonymous Coward]

And when the arpanet was created it didn't much resemble what we have today.

Al Gore brought attention to the need to expand it, give it more money and make it more widely available.

Look at the article. It quotes Vint Cerf as acknowledging that Al Gore deserves kudos. This is VINT CERF saying this! I think he would know.

Re:Information Superhighway

[weave]

He was also championing the creation of an "information superhighway" for everyone. Up until then, the Internet was research-only and had explicit prohibitions against commercial activity.

For a short time, like around 1990-92, it was commonly believed that the Internet would remain a research net and a NEW network based on OSI would emerge that would be commercial in nature. It just made sense to open up the Internet rather than reinvent the wheel.

This was all back when Congress didn't barely know what a computer was, let alone email. To have one guy with a clue back then that could actually support the funding was amazing.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Information Superhighway

[drxenos]

Mmmmmmmmm, jelly donut....

Re:Information Superhighway

[kv9]

If I remember correctly Al's original quote was "I took the initiative in inventing the internet."

what if you dont [snopes.com] ? :]

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Your link seems to show that he DOES remember

[SirSlud]

He *was*, however, crutial towards the development of a bunch of parrots who mistakeningly think attacking a strawman is a spectator sport we're interesting in watching.

Mosaic

[brlewis]

Rather than post a million times about DARPA, why not note that the Mosaic browser (without which the WWW *never* would have become big) was funded by Al Gore's legislation, and that his initiative opened up the Internet to the kind of use it sees today. What we now know as the Internet exists largely thanks to Al Gore.

Re:Information Superhighway

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a life.

Slashdot is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.

If it is any comfort to you, I hold that thousands of uninformed posts get modded to the sky regardless of political afiliation.

If you have so much trouble with the "liberial bias" here, why don't you start your own conservative version of slashdot? In that case, here are some suggested domain names:

slashdem.org
slashtax.org
slashbudget.org (May not be accurate. Look at our ballooning budget right now. pork pork pork.)
slashwelfarestate.org

Re:Information Superhighway

[Kick the Donkey]

Slashdot is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.

Thanks! You just gave me my new sig...

Re:Information Superhighway

[juanfe]

Gore popularized the phrase, but never claimed to invent it either--that's just been attribution by sloppy amateur historians. Ralph Lee Smith actually used it first [google.com], in his book The Wired Society. He coined the phrase in the 1960s to discuss cable television and the promise that it could be used to deliver interactive content, electronic community participation, remote access to libraries, and make everyone a publisher on what would be an "electronic highway".

[Interesting to note that until the web browse

Re:Information Superhighway

[paule9984673]

"Taking initiative" in the context of "service in the United States Congress" means supporting legislation. Al Gore did exactly that. He pushed legislation, amog that the High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991, which transformed some isolated research networks into what we today call the Internet.

He saw the potential of the "Information Superhighway" when most of the HAHA GORE INVETED THE INTERNET LOL kids where still shitting their pants.

Re:Information Superhighway

[Captain Splendid]

I quoted the man, all you have done thus far is spew foul language.

Yeah, and you know why? Because I'm sick and tired of dipshits like you that can't be bothered to actually look for information. I mean, fuck, it's 2005. Can't you do a Google search?

I welcome your fact-based reply.

Facts coming right up, sah! (link is here [dailyhowler.com], scroll down a bit.) And remember, before you bitch about the article length, you asked for it.

Where does spin come from? Inventing the Internet

CHAPTER I--GORE IGNOR

Re:Information Superhighway

[gurps_npc]

BULLCRAP. Ever hear of WMD?

Republicans are NOT better at disguising it - they are better at convincing themselves that their lies don't matter but the Democrat's lies do matter.

Both partys lie. When the Public ignores the Repbulican lies (WMD), the Republican congratulate themselves on "disguising it". When the Public ignores the Democrat lies, the Republicans like you cry and think "NO one cares if the Democrats lies.:

The public in general laughs at this stupidity. Asside from a very few fanatics, most people see the Republican lies as often as the Democrat ones, and don't care that much.

But there is one truth. The things they lie about differ by a lot. Republicans lie about things like: WMD, who leaked CIA agent's names,

Democrats lie about things like: Sex, and credit for working on the internet. SEE THE DIFFERNCE?????

Re:Information Superhighway

[will_die]

Except that for President Bush to actually have lied he had to known that there were no WMD before he attacked, something no believed by the vast majority of the world's governments.
For Gore to not have lied would mean he knew nothing that he had acutally done.
First turned out to be a mistake, the second a definate lie done to exagerate his own reputation.

In other news...

[mathmatt]

Tim Berners-Lee [bbc.co.uk] is to receive an award for his contributions to US politics.

Re:In other news...

[southpolesammy]

I think Phil Zimmermann [wikipedia.org] would be a more apt recipient for that award. PGP [wikipedia.org] gave the US govt fits the the better part of a decade. Made them redefine their stance on technology as a strategic weapon.

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I know it's a "Funny", but FTFA:

Vint Cerf, undisputedly one of the Internet's key inventors, will give Gore the award at a June 6 ceremony in New York.

If Cerf is giving the award personally, than he agrees Gore should get the award, unless this is some kinda of wierd political scratch his back and he'll scratch his doo-hicky.

HTML != internet

[javaxman]

In other news, Tim Berners-Lee is to receive an award for his contributions to US politics.

As much as HTML documents and HTTP transport protocols define the 'web' for the vast majority of end users, the internet itself was a well defined prerequisite for the work Berners-Lee is famous for.

I mean, I know what you're getting at, but... typically, people refer to Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn [about.com] as creators of the internet, for publishing a paper describing what would become TCP/IP.

I know you're trying to be fun

Re:In other news...

[southpolesammy]

Crap.....self-scoring -1, Redundant. Ignorance of the buttons coupled with an itchy mouse gesture capability can be an unfortunate combination...

Wow!

[computerme]

I wish I had mod points right now... I have a feeling that the tired , old, and WRONG "He said he invented the internet" phrase is going to be posted here a lot.

For the record, He said no such thing. He did help to focus attention on it while in the Senate. More so than any other politician at the time...

Give him his due.

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, he did not say "Invent". His quote is thus:

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

Thanks Al for CREATING the internet!

Re:Wow!

[Dachannien]

In other words, Al Gore was a 12th level Vice President who took the Improved Initiative feat at character creation. And he had an uncanny knack for rolling 20s on his initiative rolls. Unfortunately for him, though, he fumbled his Presidency check and dropped his election, at which point he got eaten by a Shambling Bush.

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose this CNN transcript is false then:

Partial Transcript of CNN Interview
BLITZER: "Why should Democrats, looks at the Democratic nomination, the process, support you instead of Bill Bradley -- a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate -- what do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?"

GORE: "Well, I will -- I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins, and it'll be comprehensive and sweeping, and I hope that it'll be compelling enough to draw p

Re:Wow!

[justforaday]

Can you please point out where the word "invent" appears in that transcript?

Re:Wow!

[Skye16]

Don't you think there's a big difference between some of those synonyms? Create and initiate, for example. When I think "initiate", I think "start". Meaning you could do one thing - like getting a bunch of monkeys together and giving them typewriters in the hopes of getting a Shakespearean play. You initiated the action, but the creation is done by the monkeys.

Synonyms are NOT a spoken language's way to denote identical meaning. There are subtle differences.

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

This statement is true: Al Gore took the initiative in creating the Internet

This statement is false: Al Gore invented the internet

If you do not understand the distinction, then the problem is yours. What Gore did had nothing to do with inventing and implementing the protocols or the hardware involved... and everything to do with legislation that created the Internet from the previous DARPANet and funded it for use by universities.

Read Al Franken's book, "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them" for a full essay on what Gore really said, why it's perfectly true, how and who twisted Gore's words into a lie, and how they pushed the lie to paint Gore as an exaggerator and liar for political gain.

Re:Wow!

[Punkrokkr]

Isn't that the job of politicians? To twist opponents words into a lie, and push the lie to paint opponent as an exaggerator and liar for political gain.

It seems there's a lot of arguments over: "my political candidate is better than your candidate" when there really are very few good politicians. In one way or another they are going to screw up and either say something stupid, or do something that half of the population thinks is stupid whearas the other half cheers for this accomplishment. Politicia

Re:Wow!

[d'fim]

When I put together a computer I can reasonably say that I created it, but I can not reasonably say that I invented it.

So yes, it does make a difference which word is used.

Besides, doesn't simple honesty require one to quote the actual words that Gore said, instead of parroting a misquote?

Re:Wow!

[sheldon]

How does snopes not agree with him?

They say the claim is false, and then explain...

No,
Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The derisive "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs are misleading distortions of something he said (taken out of context) during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999.

Not that it matters. Republicans have an inherent predisposition against admi

Re:Wow!

[cuzality]

You're right! The exact quote [snopes.com] (from the unquestionably reputable Snopes.com):

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

Of course, Snopes goes on to say that "...it's hard to find any specific action of Gore's (such as his sponsoring a Congressional bill or championing a particular piece of legislation) that one could claim helped bring the Internet into being, much less validate Gore's statement of having taken the "initiative in creating the Inte

Re:Wow!

[EnronHaliburton2004]

It's really sad. I've been following Snopes for about 13 years. We had a couple nice debates on Usenet :)

Over the years, he has become less and less objective and inserts his falsely-relevant Republican views into his articles more and more. A couple times he has even appologized for his poltical grandstanding and editied the articles.

Snopes is losing his reputation.

Re:Wow!

[bluprint]

In this case, other than the shot at the Clinton administration, he's pretty dead on. Anti-democrats like to make fun of Gore for claiming to be responsible for the creation of the internet. Pro-democrats like to defend him, that he never claimed to have "invented" the internet, but that he did legislatively have a lot to do with the formation of it. However, both are exaggerations. Of course, Gore never claimed to have invented the internet per se, but he certainly tried to take a hell of a lot more cr

Re:Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are woefully under-informed. Please read [sethf.com] up.

Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:43:58 -0400
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

Re:Wow!

[ajs]

The last time this topic came up, someone cited this paper by V.C. and the person they were arguing with had the unmitigated gall to say that V.C.'s opinion on the matter was moot!

I was stunned. There is no person who can put a stronger claim on having "invented" the Internet than V.C., and he fully agreed with Gore's statement. How exactly is is opinion on the matter moot?!

Bah, I just have to relax and remember that not all conservatives are this brain dead (just as not all liberals are as brain dead as

Re:Wow!

[cuzality]

Snopes is losing his reputation.

That's just an urban myth.

Read the Snopes article carefully

[rubberpaw]

EnronHaliburton2004:

I think you have misread Cuzality. Even though Cuzality cites Snopes properly, he runs his own comments together onto the end of the Snopes quote. This makes Snopes seem biased.

Snopes quote:
"...it's hard to find any specific action of Gore's (such as his sponsoring a Congressional bill or championing a particular piece of legislation) that one could claim helped bring the Internet into being, much less validate Gore's statement of having taken the "initiative in creating the Internet.""

Cuzality's quote:
But don't let that bother you -- after all, the entire premise of the Clinton administration was they wanted to be judged on how much they cared about people's problems, not what they could accomplish towards solving them. Gore undoubtedly gave many fine speeches talking about how important technology is (I just wish we could find a record of them), therefore he should get the credit for the Internet -- simple as that!

Try to be careful before judging Snopes by Cuzality's prejudice. There is nothing particular partisan about the Snopes entry [snopes.com]. In fact, Snopes presents a balanced view of the debate.

Cuzality pulls one statement from Snopes and appends his own ideas after the end of the quote.

Re:WRONG!

[Secrity]

Snopes also says " Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way."

Re:Wow!

[ruisantos]

Perhaps you should have looked harder, a quick search [answers.com] found:

On September 28, 2000, an email jointly signed by Vint Cerf [answers.com] (often called the "father of the Internet") and Robert E. Kahn [answers.com] stated the
following:

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 H. W. 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 cience.

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, proximately 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.

While Gore had made many contributions to the growth of the internet during his career, his claim to have "created" it remained an exageration. It was a gaffe that Gore would himself later have fun with. On the David Letterman [answers.com] Show, he joked that Americans should vote for him because "I gave you the internet, and
I can take it away!"

Re:Wow!

[gowen]

"Even if Al Gore had never entered the political arena, we'd probably still be reading web pages via the Internet today.""

That's such a disengenuous statement by snopes, its ridiculous. It's like saying

"If Otta hadn't invented the internal combustion engine we'd, still have motor cars by now.

Now, that's a completely true statement, someone else would've made that breakthrough, and probably not later. But it doesn't diminish the fact that Otto did invent the internal combustion engine.

Thanks Al

[mfh]

Al, thanks for inventing the internet, but I would like to ask for $100mil in damages from you for wasting all my time on Slashdot and these terrific/horrible online games I keep getting sucked into. My life in the fishtank isn't that bad, though... OTOH -- I make my living on this here thing, and I don't have to worry about rush hour traffic anymore because of telecommuting, so maybe we are even after all.

Give him the award, but tape his mouth shut when he receives it.

Re:Thanks Al

[Dot.Com.CEO]

Thus spoke the guy who actually paid real money to get a low UID.

Re:Thanks Al

[Shadow Wrought]

And what does that have to do with the comment? He wanted a low UID so he got one. Who gives a rip? If you have something to say about what he wrote than say say it. Slashdot has a high enough noise to signal ratio without pissing matches over UIDs.

Re:Thanks Al

[Dot.Com.CEO]

Well, I don't know, I think it's weird but then again you have a lower uid so you must be right.

Re:Thanks Al

[RangerRick98]

The original account owner put the account up for auction on eBay, as I recall.

Original Quote

[pyro101]

Gore never claimed that he "invented" the Internet, which implies that he engineered the technology. The invention occurred in the seventies and allowed scientists in the Defense Department to communicate with each other. In a March 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer, Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Re:Original Quote

[Otter]

And, as somehow needs to get pointed out every time someone offers this "clarification" -- what he did say is also completely false.

Re:Original Quote

[jdreed1024]

In a March 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer, Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

So, has that Time Traveler's Convention that was announced earlier happened yet? If not (or even if it has), someone needs to go to the convention, announce to all the time travelers that they should go back to March 1999, and tell Al to say "funding" instead of "creating". Then all this can go away.

But I'm sure they'd screw it up, and instead CmdrTaco would end up taking his mother to a school dance in 1955, or something.

sarcasm tags?

[SavoWood]

Do you think we can get some sarcasm tags going here? It's hard to tell if the "he invented it" comments are trolling or being funny. I'm really glad I don't have any mod points right now. This stuff makes a moderator's job really difficult. But of course, now that I've posted here, I'll get another set, and since I've posted here, I won't be able to mod this thread, so problem solved. =-)

Re:sarcasm tags?

[cuzality]

Parent's right -- c'mon guys, use sarcasm tags ! Nobody can tell if you're being sarcastic or not without them!

polarized

[bwy]

'It's just one of those instances someone did amazing work for three decades as congressman, senator and vice president and it got spun around into this political mess...'

It is amazing how polarized our society is. Half the folks will agree with this and half will disagree. Most will be very strong in their beliefs one way or another. It amazes me sometime that we can all work and live together in a fairly civil manner, with such conflicting views. Perhaps, considering this, we deserve more credit that we are given.

Re:polarized

[DanielMarkham]

"...It is amazing how polarized our society is. Half the folks will agree with this and half will disagree..."

Oh I completely disagree with that. It's more like 52.7% of the people will agree with that. You couldn't be more wrong. We're a very agreeable society. Of course we are. Right?

Oblig Quote

[gik]

"If Al Gore invented the internet, I invented spell check."
-Dan Quayle :)

oh god..

[biz0r]

Now countless /.'ers have a not-so-great excuse to repeat the ever so way over-done Al Gore Internet quote that I refuse to regurgitate myself.

Did someone post this JUST so they could make that joke a 1000 times?

I am not a Republican...

[Anonymous Coward]

...and have never voted republican at the presidential level, so don't accuse me of being partisan. Whatever Al Gore as claimed is the overblown ravings of a politician who takes credit where none is due. Politicians from the left and right make claims like this all the time. Bureaucrats really believe that their meetings and pronouncements really make a difference, but the internet had all it needed to get started without him. Save your lefty awards for someone who deserves them. The Webby's are just an e

An appropriate award

[EnronHaliburton2004]

We all know that Al Gore misspoke when he said he invented the Internet.

But truth be told, Al Gore did more to bolster the internet then any other politician. Without his work, it's doubtful that many people outside the scientific, academic & military community would be using the Internet today.

There are also many private citizens who did a ton of work to bolster the Internet. Many of them deserve awards too.

And for the record, I voted for Nader. I lost faith in Gore and the Democrats, but I still li

Re:An appropriate award

[American AC in Paris]

We all know that Al Gore misspoke when he said he invented the Internet.

No, Al Gore did not misspeak, nor did he ever say he invented the Internet. Here's the quote, courtesy of Snopes [snopes.com]:

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

Yes, yes, he wasn't there for the crafting of RFC 1, but the crux of what he's saying is true: he was one of the key players in Congress when it came to promoting and creating the Internet we know and use today.

That this balls-out lie about what Al Gore said still manages to exist today is demonstrative of just how little truth matters in American politics. Rather than set the record straight, there's a very sizeable chunk of powerful people who would rather perpetuate an obvious and easily debunked lie for the sake of hurting their opponent. Frankly, the Republicans engage in this kind of chicanery to a far greater extent than the Democrats do--which is a large part of why I'm not a Republican. There are plenty of self-aggrandizing, self-serving Democrats out there, but on balance, they're more oriented to reason and honesty than the Republicans are these days.

Re:An appropriate award

[SpryGuy]

In fact, the 'lie' itself was purposely crafted and spread by Rush Limbaugh. Al Franken has a decent history of this spin in his book "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them". It's a good read. And well backed by facts.

Re:An appropriate award

[sgtrock]

No, Al Gore did not misspeak, nor did he ever say he invented the Internet. Here's the quote, courtesy of Snopes:

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

But, but... that IS a lie. The Internet ALREADY EXISTED. All Al really did was recognize that there was a big groundswell of support for a publicly available, for pay network that could be used for commercial purposes. He jumped on the bandwagon to remove the restrictions that prevented tha

snopes

[Reignking]

And here [snopes.com] is the Snopes.com page to refute it all...

Where's the fun in that?

[eSims]

For the record, He said no such thing.

Maybe he didn't say it... but you have to admit that it has been the source of almost endless humour. Come on, admit it! Gore is a Bore! But spin the facts a bit and it's downright entertaining.

Just goes to show that people are more interested in entertainment that truth. Pretty pathetic really...

I've always wondered

[crimoid]

If Gore did anything to convince Clinton not to sign the DMCA.

Why would the pioneer of the Clipper chip do that?

[SuperKendall]

Now why would the guy who strongly backed standard encryption with government mandated back doors (Clipper chip [epic.org]) do anything to try and slow the DMCA at all?

Re:Why would the pioneer of the Clipper chip do th

[InfiniteWisdom]

Ah ha. So finally we get to the core of the issue. The DMCA was paid off politicians returning favors to their corporate overlords. The Clipper chip was about government paranoia regarding encryption, and fought by the industry. There's absolutely no connection between the two, and no reason why one who supported one would be likely to support the other.

Re:Maybe

[SpryGuy]

Actually the smoking bans are not a liberal/conservative thing at all. In fact, the latest smoking ban in Austin is backed by none other than Karl Rove. Most liberals I know are opposed to it.

And as for the FDA and OSHA issues, those are safety and "protections from corporate power" things, and not about banning ideas or thoughts or pictures or words at all. It's about learning form abuses of the past, and working to try and balance out the power equation rather than thinking of the elderly or the sick

Re:thats backwards in some ways

[SpryGuy]

According to the CATO institute (a libertarian organization):

President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn't cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush's first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy gr

Where..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Where's the award for Google? They truely helped the internet after the bubble burst. There's very very few people who arein the business and don't wish they could work for them. What you expected a slashdot story without a Google comment?

Who?

[wsanders]

Who is this Al Gore guy? Didn't he run for president or something?

While he was busy...

[NixLuver]

Inventing the internet, do you think he might have spent a LITTLE more time dealing the the /. effect? Remember, Al is they guy that lots of people didn't vote for because he was "too smart". *sigh* Instead, we deprived some poor villiage in Texas the use of their idiot for eight long years.

Might we agree that...

[Sprotch]

The phrase "[d]uring my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." appears spun to make it seem like he was responsible for the Internet's existence?

Obviously that's a long stretch from claiming to have invented it, however it seems obvious that Gore was impliedly trying to get the credit for the Internet's existence. It's bad spin that backfired...

It's Senatese

[sheldon]

Taking initiative in the Senate means going into a commitee and introducing a bill to do something.

So he meant exactly what he said. The problem is that it isn't understandable outside of the Senate and he should have known better.

algorithms

[horvathcom]

I thought he invented algorithms!

Al Gore, forefather of the Patriot Act

[SuperKendall]

Perhaps instead Al Gore should be awarded for pioneering the idea that the government should have almost unlimited monitoring power of the populace - being the main backer of the Clipper [epic.org] Chip [epic.org] and all.

It never fails to amaze me what support the guy gets on Slashdot when he was instrumental in coming so close to having a single, government controlled form of encryption be th eonly one allowed. If anything shows a guy who Does Not Get The Internet, that is it.

You want a piece of evidence.

[Silicon Jedi]

Yes, Al Gore was puffing himself up a bit... No, he wasn't claiming to be the inventor. But, He did sponsor many of the congressional bills that funded the infant internet In 1989, Gore introduced the National High-Performance Computer Technology Act, a five-year, $1.7 billion program to expand the capacity of the information highway to connect government, industry, and academic institutions. Signed by President Bush in 1991, the bill supported research and development for an improved national computer system, and assisted colleges and libraries in connecting to the new network. High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 - Title I: High-Performance Computing and the National Research and Education Network - Directs the President to implement the National High-Performance Computing Program. Sets forth Program requirements, including: (1) setting goals and priorities for Federal high-performance computing research, development, and networking; (2) providing for interagency coordination; (3) providing for oversight of the operation and evolution of the National Research and Education Network provided for in this Act; (4) improving software; (5) acceleration of high-performance computer system development; (6) technical support and research and development of software and hardware needed to address fundamental problems in science and engineering (Grand Challenges); (7) educating undergraduate and graduate students; and (8) providing for security.

Re:You want a piece of evidence.

[Anonymous Coward]

from http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh120302.shtml [dailyhowler.com]

"...even one of Gore's long-standing foes was praising his work in this area. On September 1, 2000, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich addressed the American Political Science Association. His remarks were broadcast on C-SPAN:

GINGRICH: 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 [to Congress], 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. ...

David Maraniss, 8/26/00: Gore really was instrumental in developing the Internet. He was the one congressman who understood the whole thing in the '70s."

This comes up from time to time ...

[YankeeInExile]

...and this guy [slashdot.org] says it best.

What's it worth?

[99bottles]

This isn't exactly a Nobel prize. The Webby's are presented by this group:
"The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening..."

Some intellectual heavy weights there!

Gore haters, explain this one...

[inkswamp]

If all of this is just a scheme by the so-called liberal media and by Al Gore, why is it that Gore was invited to the 25th anniversary of the first ARPANET node which was intended only for those directly involved in the project or those who were deemed to have contributed in some significant way--either technologically or in terms of leadership or support (i.e, as a well-informed politician might)? What, were the ARPANET guys also victim to the dastardly liberal media too?

The guest list included a lot of names we all know nowadays as synonymous with creation of the Internet. Invitations to this event were not handed out to just anyone and there was even some debate as to whether or not to invite Bill Gates (eventually, they did but he turned it down because he wasn't convinced that the Internet was going to be important. Heh-heh....)

Any of you knee-jerk righties out there want to offer up some ideas as to why Gore was invited? Any revisionist, Rush Limbaugh-like theories out there?

And you can look it up in several sources if you don't believe me. The one I have immediately at hand is "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet" by Hafner and Lyon (p. 260 for those of you too lazy to flip through the index.) There are other sources out there for that info too. So please, before bashing Gore for supposedly specious claims about his involvement in the development of the Internet, know what you're talking about.

We understand words differently

[danila]

I think at this stage it is clearly a problem of people clinging to different understandings of common words.

Gore said "I took the initiative in creating the Internet".

Let's read this.

1) To "take the initiative [answers.com]" means to "begin a task or plan of action". This is an idiom. It uses "initiative" in the sense of "the power to originate something," a usage dating from the late 1700s.
2) To create [answers.com] is obviously "To cause to exist; bring into being".

We must note, of course, that the Internet was not created instantly on a certain day - instead it was a long process, during which something that wasn't Internet (APRANET) gradually became Internet. APRANET clearly wasn't Internet, it was a precursor of it. There were several important stages - transition to TCP/IP, creation of university backbone, creation of WWW and the Internet was created throughout these steps, not in 1969 when first computers were connected via APRANET.

This basically means that Gore was one of the major forces behind the process of creation of the modern Internet, he has the right to claim what he did.

There can be an alternative way to parse the sentence. May be it meant "initiative in the process", that is noone was leading the process and noone was taking the initiative. If Gore was in fact one of the leaders, then he is still justified in claiming what he did. Was he one of the leaders? Well, I think it is a safe bet to state that on the political front he was THE leader of Internet emergence. So far no one has come forward and claimed that someone else was.

Fundamental units

[lildogie]

The Fundamental Unit of Computer Logic, the algorithm, was named after Al Gore, inventor of the internet.

Re:for inventing the internet

[gowen]

Talk about completely missing the point of this award. It's being given precisely to counter those juvenile jibes. (American politics reduced to juvenile jibes? Thats unpossible!?!

Man, you must've really wanted that first post.

This post goes out to the humour-impaired.

[TripMaster Monkey]

Talk about completely missing the point of this joke. It's being posted precisely to counter humourless killjoys like yourself. (Slashdot reduced to humourless killjoys? That's (sic)unpossible!?!

Man, you must've really wanted to boss someone around.

Re:He invented it

[Coneasfast]

nope he said:

I took the initiative in creating the Internet

not exactly the same things, but still it could be taken as misleading.

Re:He invented it

[SpryGuy]

What was misleading was the DELIBERATE spin that Rush Limbaugh put on it, when he seized on Gore's legitimate and truthful statement that he took the initiative in creating the Internet in order to ridicule Gore. The lie that Gore said "I invented the internet" was a mendatious meme that spread like wild-fire, unfortunately, fanned on by the right-wing media and their aggressive deception campaign.

This award is too little, too late, but at least it's some mild exoneration for him. Still, I doubt the erro

Re:Al "frickin" Gore

[tthomas48]

Oh my gosh. I can't believe anyone is ever talking about someone with an opposing view to me. Obviously the fact there are people with opposing views makes me an oppressed minority. Woe is me. Obviously we Republicans just can't win. We've got the house, the senate, the judicary and the presidency and people still talk about Al Gore. How can they be so narcissistic to not focus on our narcissism? This country was founded to talk about Christian Evangelical Protestant Repulican's dammit! And that liberal med

Re:Al "frickin" Gore

[yelvington]

>>If Bush said the same thing, he would never be allowed off the hook and would receive 10x the bashing.

In what parallel reality did Bush serve in Congress?

Is gas cheaper there?

Re:Al "frickin" Gore

[cthellis]

If Bush said the same thing, he would never be allowed off the hook and would receive 10x the bashing. I find it crap, that if Clinton or Gore say something poorly worded and/or easily misinterpreted everyone here tries to defend them.

Actually, he'd be heckled, his quote would be tossed in amongst 1000 other sillified statements he's made, and people wouldn't actually bring it into discussions about his political character and demeanor... It would just be yet another drop in the bucket of things he said

Not really

[sheldon]

If Bush said "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating clean hydrogen powered cars." People would jump all over him...and at least in that case he earmarked some $6 billion over a period of a several years.


No, actually most Democrats would probably complain about the fact that while Bush said he had earmarked some $6 billion for a project... He never actually spent the money.

Which is actually interesting, and it's a creative government PR tactic. You announce... "I am going to earmark $400 billion to solve the problem of world hunger!" But then you don't actually budget or spend the money, so really you haven't done anything other than give a speech and you don't have to actually figure out how to come up with the money, but you get to call yourself the World Hunger President.

Which is basically what Bush has done on education, AIDS, energy, and several other initiatives. He tried to do it with Iraq, but after our soldiers kept getting shot at he realized he probably better buy them some bullets and armor.

Of course now the problem Democrats have is that they're whining about not spending money which people are frankly tired of hearing so nobody listens to their complaints.

And the voters... Well after hearing Bush tell us he caught a fish ---> this big --- so many times, they stopped listening to him as well and don't think he's doing anything at all useful.

George "frickin" Bush

[Rufus88]

If Bush said the same thing, he would never be allowed off the hook and would receive 10x the bashing.

Bush took credit for a Texas Patients' Bill of Rights Act that he vetoed, and he hasn't even received 1/10 the bashing.

Re:Here we go again

[argent]

'took the initiative in creating' is very vague wording - meant to imply something without specifically stating it.

It's vague wording, it's bad wording, it's blah blah blah... you know what it its? It's speechifying. He was using a phrase that sounded good. The next sentence is "I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives..." Does that mean he was responsible for moving them forward, that nobody else had anything to do with moving them forward? No.

There's no indication that he ei