Giving Gore credit by 'contributions' or advocacy is like saying Hanna-Barbera really CREATED the internet due to it's forward thinking video conferencing and communication representations in the Jetsons (remember he sat clicking a button all day) AH HA, George Jetson, the creator of the mouse.
Would Gene Roddenberry have patent/bragging rights when a transporter is developed?
What he really did, or contributed, was advertising at the opportune moment.
He is a salesman, taking credit for other peoples work and packaging it as his own. He is an effective one.
If you are going to base his contribution on his bill in 1991,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore's_contributions_to_the_Internet_and_techno logy
people, including me, had been using 'arpanet' which just referred to 'net' with ftp ascii files, email, and TCP/IP protocols in the late 80's. (sounds like the current day internet to me, just a lot... a lot a lot slower)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpanet
"In 1983, TCP/IP protocols replaced NCP as the principal protocol of the ARPANET, and the ARPANET became just one component of the fledgling Internet."
What many fail to realize, computing power for the consumer would never handle packet switching to make widespread use possible until the 90's anyway. The pieces were all ready in place, technology is was needed to catch up. Egomanical Gore was nothing more than a Egomaniac Mark Cuban, where they are the most fortunate people to be in the most fortunate positions. (Cuban will probably come after me for defamation of character)
Let's say this, his legislation, signed by Bush, allowed a PRIVATELY OWNED corporation out of no where, leap R&D development with huge funding to create Mosaic.
how is the context of a quote like this really defined?
"'If it had been left to private industry, it wouldn't have happened,' Andreessen says of Gore's bill, 'at least, not until years later.'"
sigh, sorry, if this constitutes a hijack, I'm sorry, he just makes my skin crawl.