If you have a clue about the creation of the Internet and Vinton Cerf, you'd stop repeating that misquote about Al Gore. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:43:58 -0400 From: vinton g. cerf <vcerf@MCI.NET> To: Declan McCullaugh <declan@well.com>, farber@cis.upenn.edu Cc: rkahn@cnri.reston.va.us Subject: Al Gore and the Internet Dave and Declan, I am taking the liberty of sending to you both a brief summary of Al Gore's Internet involvement, prepared by Bob Kahn and me. As you know, there have been a seemingly unending series of jokes chiding the vice president for his assertion that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet." Bob and I believe that the vice president deserves significant credit for his early recognition of the importance of what has become the Internet. I thought you might find this short summary of sufficient interest to share it with Politech and the IP lists, respectively. ============================================================== Al Gore and the Internet By Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development. No one person or even small group of persons exclusively "invented" the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore's contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time. Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on his role. He said: "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet." We don't think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he "invented" the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective. As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies t! o ! ! ! natu ral disasters and other crises. As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an "Interagency Network." Working in a bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush's administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991. This "Gore Act" supported the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science. As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and out, as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the government agencies that spawned it. He served as the major administration proponent for continued investment in advanced computing and networking and private sector initiatives such as Net Day. He was and is a strong proponent of extending access to the network to schools and libraries. Today, approximately 95% of our nation's schools are on the Internet. Gore provided much-needed political support for the speedy privatization of the Internet when the time arrived for it to become a commercially-driven operation. There are many factors that have contributed to the Internet's rapid growth since the later 1980s, not the least of which has been political support for its privatization and continued support for research in advanced networking technology. No one in public life has been more intellectually engaged in helping to create the climate for a thriving Internet than the Vice President. Gore has been a clear champion of this effort, both in the councils of government and with the public at large. The Vice President deserves credit for his early recognition of the value of high speed computing and communication and for his long-term and consistent articulation of the potential value of the Internet to American citizens and industry and, indeed, to the rest of the world. Version 1.2 Word count: 709 WorldCom 22001 Loudoun County Parkway Building F2, Room 4115, ATTN: Vint Cerf Ashburn, VA 20147 Telephone (703) 886-1690 FAX (703) 886-0047 Come to Silicon Valley. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p01s03-usec.html USA > Economy from the December 29, 2003 edition Around the globe, new 'Silicon Valleys' emerge As software jobs move to India and beyond, California could lose its footing as tech startup capital of the world. By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor SANTA CLARA, CALIF. – Every so often, Walter Wilson wonders if he should become a plumber. It's not that he is repressing a deep affection for S-traps or porcelain fixtures. Rather, it's the fact that, to him, the Silicon Valley of old is dead. Just a few years ago, he was a star of the silicon revolution. As a software developer, Mr. Wilson was such a precious commodity that tech companies pleaded for Congress to let in more of his foreign colleagues to meet what seemed a bottomless demand. Now, however, Wilson can't find a steady job. The collapse of the tech economy hurt, to be sure. But that's not what has him daydreaming of sink snakes. He's been pushed to his financial edge because, increasingly, jobs like his are being sent to India. For years, companies from carmakers to telemarketers have cut costs by replacing American workers with cheaper employees based abroad - and tech companies have been no different. But Silicon Valley had always stopped short of sending its high-skill research and design jobs abroad. Now that it, too, has joined the trend toward outsourcing, Silicon Valley's future as the lodestar of the tech universe is at stake. For the moment it means that many workers will need to reinvent themselves or relocate. More deeply, though, it points toward a new kaleidoscope of "Silicon Valleys" worldwide, as foreign engineers now doing the work of Silicon Valley corporations spin off to form their own startups. It is the same pattern that helped create Silicon Valley's unique startup culture, as young designers at firms such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM broke away to set up their own businesses. Now, the tech industry's desire for cheaper labor is sowing these seeds around the globe. "We're seeing a fundamental shift," says Jim Koch, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University. "Innovation is becoming a truly global phenomenon." That is partly the result of economic necessity. The legendary excess of the late 1990s has been followed by a new frugality in which investors and venture capitalists actually expect a profit. One of the surest responses has been to cut payroll costs by hiring overseas workers - even in high-skill, high-paying jobs like software design. Ironically, though, the shift is possible because of the success of Silicon Valley's Internet revolution. Many of the foreign workers brought in during the boom have returned to their home countries with a new level of expertise. And perhaps more important, the advances of recent years have reshaped the global communication network through the Internet, telecommunications, and wireless net- works. Indeed, in typical Silicon Valley fashion, when Vic Kulkarni considers the fate of the cradle of the tech world, he takes the idea a step further and suggests that the very notion of Silicon Valley is becoming outdated. "Wherever there is talent, we want to go," says the president of Sequence Design, a company that produces software to design computer chips. "Only time zones are boundaries in my head anymore. There are no geographical boundaries." Design teams schedule meetings across countries, simultaneously involving employees in India, Japan, Boston, London, and here. "We don't have a headquarters," he says. "If I'm traveling to Japan, that's where the headquarters is." With his new 20-person research and design bureau in Delhi, his company can work 24 hours a day, splitting tasks between the US and India. Moreover, the Delhi bureau costs him about one-third of what it would cost him to set up a similar operation in Silicon Valley. The consequence for Americans That math, however, has sent American software engineers into unemployment lines. "We have definitely felt it," says Fadi Bishara of TechVenture, an outplacement firm in Menlo Park, Calif. "Three or four years ago, there was a tremendous demand on all levels of software developers... Now, 20 percent of the work that would normally be done by local people has been shifted [overseas]." Software developer Wilson has had to refinance his house, put off buying a new car, and scale back the plans for his kids' education from pricey private colleges to state schools. Fortunately, he says, he has other skills to fall back on, or else he might have been truly tempted to pick up a plumber's wrench. "The plumbing hourly wage is about the same as a software engineer now, and they can't send plumbers overseas." Yet Wilson also sees a change in Silicon Valley beyond his own situation. He came here in 1995 because, as a techie, Silicon Valley was to him what Paris was to impressionists or Milan is to fashion design. For a half-century, Silicon Valley has been unique - a cauldron of pure capitalism. Now, however, Silicon Valley's outsourcing is feeding an emerging class of tech hubs worldwide. In the not-too-distant future, he worries, Silicon Valley could lose its preeminent place. "That sort of fantasy and luster will be gone," says Wilson. "The way it was, the creative stuff was done here... But we're going to see more and more of that sent overseas. Why would you keep it here?" A unique confluence Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists don't deny that outsourcing will probably gather speed. But many maintain that even in a world of truly global innovation, Silicon Valley remains a unique brew - bringing together world-class universities, massive quantities of money, perfect weather, and an almost kamikaze approach to capitalism that doesn't fear failure. Bangalore, India's nascent Silicon Valley, "is a much more risk-averse culture," says Ravi Chirevolu, who travels to India for his job with Charter and Venture Capital in Palo Alto, Calif. "In Silicon Valley, it's sexy to be in a startup; In Bangalore it's always better to work at some company you've heard of." The culture of taking risks in order to be at the forefront of innovation, he and others say, is central to what Silicon Valley is, and crucial to it remaining relevant in the future. "Silicon Valley has some very unique aspects that make it the center of the high-value part of the entrepreneurial process," says Steve Bird of Focus Ventures in Palo Alto. "The real innovation is still happening here, and I expect that to continue." www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
