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...'"

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 like alot of the work that Gore did before he became VP. It's sad that he shut up during his 8 year run as VP.

I've always wondered

[crimoid]

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

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!

[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: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.

To all the naysayers

[brontus3927]

The word "internet" is vague. Break it down

Inter - adj : (prefix) between or among or in the midst of

Net - short for network - n. An openwork fabric or structure in which cords, threads, or wires cross at regular intervals, or a system resembling such

The internet was created originally for a few select institutions to share information with each other. The highway [highways.gov.uk] was invented my the Romans to quickly move troops from place to place.

Al Gore, Jr. was one of the primary people who saw the potential of it for more with his father's accomplishments in mind. Gore advocated and helped bring about the internet as we now conceive of it, millions of computers interconnected sharing information for anyone to see. He invisioned a more open network that anyone could connect to. He was instrumental in creating the internet as we now use it. Al Gore, Sr. was one of the primary people who saw the potential of free and open highways connecting people across the country. He was instrumental in creating the interstate highway system as we now use it.

Re:polarized

[Remnant44]

It's a nice thing to be part of the half that's always right though, isn't it? If you're in the "educated people with brains" category, then you should think long and hard about what it means if you're always right on every issue and your opponent is always wrong. I only wish I was as infallible as you.

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.

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