Sorry. I posted this above but I'll repost in its own message so it'll be clearer. I did a little Internet research and found a couple interesting bits. I did not find andybody saying what I'm saying...I'm just stringing together facts. Four of the top 20 contributors to the Republican party in 2000 were telcom/tech giants. ATT - $2,372,571 Microsoft - $1,594,135 SBC - $1,025,182 Verizon - $912,176 The broadband adoption rate hasn't been as strong as many companies would like. Monthly charges of broadband are higher than dial-up, therefore profits are higher. These companies want to find ways to convert more people to broadband because that increases profitability.
The federal government paid the majority of funds for the creation and development of the internet. It also paid for most of the early maintenance costs. So, yes, this is a welfare baby built on the backs of taxpayers. And yes, Al Gore was there. And if you don't know who Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn are, you know nothing about who invented the internet. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/02/net_builders_kahn_cerf_recognise/ Net builders Kahn, Cerf recognise Al Gore By Thomas C Greene in Washington Published Monday 2nd October 2000 16:19 GMT We received the following essay by Internet engineering wizzards Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf last night courtesy of the Politech mailing list. While it reads somewhat like a PR blurb, it's also a fair backgrounder on Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore's legislative contributions to the Net. It's reproduced below, unedited and uncut. 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 to natural 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. . . .
