Foxfyre wrote: Obviously, even a cursory review of the information there clearly hows that Gore was not instrumental in either thinking up the technology or producing it. ....he did make a signiicant contribution, and he deserves credit for that. He just doesn't deserve as much credit as he gave himself.
I think a lot boils down to what a reasonable interpretation of "took the initiative in creating the internet" actually would be.
It clearly cannot mean, "I showed initiative. I created the internet", for that would be absurd.
It also doesn't mean, "I created the technology that made the internet possible", for that would make little sense. Everyone knows that Gore has a career in public service. Nobody can be expected to believe that you would walk into his office and see wires, integrated circuits, transistors and soldering irons all over the place.
However, there is a far more reasonable interpretation. When somebody gets on board an existing organization or movement when it is still quite small, and helps dramatically to turn it into something much, much bigger than it was, there is a tendency to say that so-and-so "created" or "made" the thing.
For instance, rock and roll was already an established music style before Elvis came along. Yet Elvis is so associated with turning it into the dominant muscal style that it became, that it would not be inaccurate to say that he "created" rock and roll. Without him, rock and roll might have been just a few records that were hits for a year or so, before music moved on to something else, like "trad jazz", or folk.
Another example. The American Football League was already in existence for several years before Joe Namath was signed out of college to play there. Yet Namath's big contract from the Jets and his spectacular play his first couple of years induced ABC to offer the entire league a lucrative TV contract, thus ensuring it's survival. This essentially forced the established National Football League, which until that time was waiting for the fledgling AFL to fail, to offer the AFL a plan to merge the two leagues. Without the ABC TV contract, the AFL doesn't get offered the merger deal. Without Namath, ABC doesn't give the AFL the TV contract. Hence, you often hear that Namath "made" the American Football League. Nobody seriously argues otherwise.
I think this is how you have to look at Gore's statement. Beofre he came on the scene, the internet was just a fledgling network which the Pentagon decided to remove from the public eye. Gore got the libraries and colleges to start a similar network, and helped to get the new network accessible to everyone whether they were in a library or not.
This really helped to transform the internet into what it is today. If Gore did not come along, there is a chance that the internet might be something only researchers know about.
Here is another article on the subject, that makes things perhaps a little clearer.
)Nation
