The Far Side of Tech

How many times have you heard someone joke about Al Gore “inventing” the internet? It’s amazing how pervasive this myth is as it’s practically folklore by now. Even Engadget’s Ryan Block, one of the most commonly associated names with well-informed technology news, perpetuated the myth in this recent post. That post in particular angered me because I normally expect better from Engadget.

 

Thanks to Flickr user joTape85

I hate disinformation, so to correct this all-too-often myth I present to you a quick overview of Gore’s contribution to the net (culled from the Gore’s Wikipedia entry):

• He drafted the “High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991″ as a response to the 1988 report “Toward a National Research Network” by a former ARPANET creator. (ARPANET was basically the predecessor of the internet)
• The bill passed in December of 1991 and led to the development of the National Information Infrastructure which Gore wisely dubbed the “Information Superhighway”.
• The bill also led to the development of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser. Mosaic is often credited as one of the most crucial elements to the rising popularity of the web in the early 90’s.
• As Vice-President, he worked together with President Clinton to craft the reports “Technology for America’s Economic Growth” and “Science in the National Interest“.
  

Further research into this topic basically reveals that Gore has always been a huge geek. Here is the synopsis from his biography on his early-internet contributions (Originally posted by JesseGordon at OnTheIssues):

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.

While Gore is not, as he suggested in 1999, the father of the Internet, he can credibly claim credit as the wealthy uncle who stepped up to provide funds at an important moment. In 1989, when few public officials grasped the profound changes that new information technology would bring, Gore saw them plainly. “I genuinely believe that the creation of this nationwide network will create an environment where work stations are common in homes and even small businesses,” he told a House committee in the spring of 1989.

(Inventing Al Gore, p.217)

Keep in mind that in the 80’s the closest thing private individuals had to network access was the closed networks of AOL, Compuserve, and the like. Gore saw the potential of the internet, a widely accessible and public information network, fully a decade before it became hip. For that , I believe he deserves credit.

The controversy around Gore “inventing” the internet started with this particularly harsh Wired News response to a ‘99 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. (Note: At that point Wired News was a completely separate entity from Wired Magazine.)

Gore actually said: “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Poor wording for sure, but the Wired News response took the worst possible interpretation and ran with it. Eventually, conservative media personalities warped the quote to sound as if he declared he “invented” the net, and the rest is sadly familiar history.

Just recently, Huffington Post writer Eric Boehlert declared that Wired News owes Gore an apology for the transgression. Sadly, Wired News declined, stating that the writer who wrote the original story was long gone.

It’s a shame that this myth still exists, but Gore’s recent time in the limelight has probably eroded much of its negative connotations. Now that he’s recognized as one of those rare forward-thinking politicians I assume he’ll eventually receive some sort of recognition for helping to spur on the Internet’s growth. At the very least, it’s something he can use to poke fun at himself.

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Update: I came across an even more thorough review on this matter from the peer-reviewed web-journal (how rare!) First Monday. I also uncovered an apology of sorts from Declan McCulagh, the Wired News writer who started this whole mess.

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