Former Vice President Al Gore has gotten a lot of flack over the years for his statement saying that he ‘invented the internet’. Although many have laughed at that as a guffaw, Al Gore did have a very large impact on the development of the internet as we know it today. Others who were directly involved in its development are not hesitant to give him credit for the big part, he did play.
- Education of governmental leaders. As a member of congress in the 1970′s, Gore had already taken a great interest in the advancement of computer technology. He understood both its current usages and the huge potential benefit for the future. Gore was known for continually boring his colleagues with discussion of the topics, in an effort to inform legislators on the topic.
- Early leadership in high speed communication. Understanding that he would need to convince government leaders of the advantages available to government entities in order to gain support, Gore initiated hearings on how high speed communications could improve government’s response to disasters.
- Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986 In the 1980′s, Gore continued to press the government to pursue further study of the capabilities and advancements that might be made available through networking computer infrastructures together.
- The Gore Bill. The High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 was introduced by Al Gore and signed by President Bush. This bill allocated $600 million for the National Research and Education Network, which brought together government, industry and academia in the development of what Gore termed ‘the information superhighway’.
- “Infrastructure for the Global Village” This was the title of an essay written by Al Gore and published in Scientific America. The essay laid out the purpose of the bill he was presenting in 1991 and how essential he felt it was for the development of this network, which would eventually link millions of computers together.
- Mosaic. This was the name of the first World Wide Web browser developed due to funding provided under the Gore Bill. Team development members credit the government funding in bringing about the technology many times faster than it could have been done through private enterprise.
- The information superhighway. Al Gore is credited with coining this term and strongly encouraging President Clinton to immediately pursue development of a national information superhighway that could eventually be accessed by all Americans. For the first time, the scientific community and government were making a full embrace.
- Federal Information Technology. An executive order issued by the Clinton-Gore administration, this ordered the heads of all federal agencies to make the information of their agencies available to the public. This followed the development of the first White House web site on the internet.
- Data security. Vice President Gore was also a huge promoter of increased data security through encryption. He was one of the first to recognize data security as a law enforcement issue.
- Public accessibility. Continually, throughout his career, Al Gore maintained a focus on making information technology accessible to the individual households of American citizens. He was not content with having this technology available to educators, industry and the government. He truly believed that access to information was what bring the American people to the forefront of the world in the area of technology.
Though his impact may not have been achieved from a computer lab, it was very strongly felt in the technology centers that benefited from his efforts of leadership within government circles.
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