Gore to Get Lifetime Award for Three Decades of Contributions to Internet

Yeah, they made a lot of jokes about it at the time, lots of campaign fodder, but the truth is that Mr. "I Invented the Internet" may not have been its sole founder, but he sure did a lot of care and feeding of it when it was just a fledgling group of servers at institutions educational and governmental across the nation and the world that needed to be able to exchange data with each other quickly, securely and seamlessly. And contrary to the wisecracks, Gore seems to have played more of a role in what is now a key technology than the pundits were willing to admit back in 2000. Damn Liars.


AP Reports That Al Gore to Get Lifetime Award Achievement Award for Three Decades of Contributions to Development of the Internet

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet WriterThu May 5, 8:28 AM ET

Al Gore may have been lampooned for taking credit in the Internet's development, but organizers of the Webby Awards for online achievements don't find it funny at all.

In part to 'set the record straight,' they will give Gore a lifetime achievement award for three decades of contributions to the Internet, said Tiffany Shlain, the awards' founder and chairwoman.

'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,' Shlain said.

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

'He is indeed due some thanks and consideration for his early contributions,' Cerf said.

Gore, who boasted in a CNN interview he 'took the initiative in creating the Internet,' was only 21 when the Internet was born out of a Pentagon project.

But after joining Congress eight years later, he promoted high-speed telecommunications for economic growth and supported funding increases for the then-fledging network, according to the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which presents the annual awards.

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



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Peter

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