Comment The truth about Gore, lies and Open Source (Score 2) 230
I am one of the people Gore is meant to be stealling the credit for "inventing" the Internet. Like much of what passes for news in the media it makes a good story, but the truth is much more interesting and it is not hard to find
Media Lie: Gore Claimed to 'Invent' the internet
He didn't,he said he 'took the initiative in creating the Internet'. now invention and creation are not the same thing. I am one of the authors of HTTP, I spent 3 years working with Tim B-L 'inventing' the Web. I didn't create the Web though and neither did Tim we all did that together.
Gore played a significant role. Back in 1992 I was trying to evangelise the Web beyond the High Energy Physics community. I had been involved with Mallery and Hurwitz who were running the political participation project at MIT at the time. The Clinton Gore '92 campaign had been the only one to take them or Internet seriously. So I sold them the Web as the future of politics, media etc. We had about 100 users.
Gore did two things which helped the Web take off. The first was to authorize the www.whitehouse.gov website. Before that went online closed proprietary systems such as Acrobat and Hyper-G were much more visible. The Whitehouse site legitimized the web. The other thing Gore did was to make all the agencies go on line first.
The Web is an Operating System
When we were designing the HTTP protocol and the related security systems the only useful models I could find tended to be from the operating system world. But I fail to see the relevance to open source, open source was arround years before Linux, ask Linus T. if you don't believe me.
Open Source
Linux did not invent open source, nor for that matter did Stallman. RMS certainly started the ball rolling with GNU but anyone who has worked with RMS knows that there is a big difference between FSF and Linux! The GPL is completely wedged with a lot of unnecessary political positions aimed at coercing the rest of the world to partake of the RMS world view. Linux and the Web are much more open, thats why Red hat and Netscape could exist.
I trace the 'open source' movement as distinct from the GPL ideas as being the emergence of the apache group.
Will the Gore site be trully 'Open Source'
Hey I really hope so!
Don't discount the possibility. About 80% of politicians on the Hill live up to the media stereotype, they are interested in power and their own personal status. The country can go to the dogs.
A few politicians on both sides remember why they got in. These people really want to talk about the issues but the media only want to talk about Monica, or whatever the scandal of the day happens to be. Political journalism in the US is treated like sports reports, who scored most hits against the other side. I know your politicians are all weasels, I have worked with them. I have also worked with your press, they rank way, way down bellow weasel.
The politicians who actually care about politics and issues want to debate them and be elected on their positions on the issues - not what the media claim their positions to be. The media mutation of 'initiative' into 'invention' is just one example. The Time 'cyberporn' story which spawned the CDA and COPA is an example we would all agree on, one journalist knowingly uses an undergraduate term paper to misrepresent the entire Internet community. Why - to sell copies of Time magazine.
The politicians that care about issues have good reason to arm other politicians. The real enemy is the media.
Its About Power
The media want you to let them do your thinking for you. Don't let them./i>
You don't have to be a Gore supporter to want to check the facts before you flame about them. It is easy enough to get the original Gore quote. If the New York Times doesn't give a URL you can check its probably because they want to pull a fast one.
We built the Web understanding how communication and power are connected. It is not a coincidence that the Web is damn near censor proof. Along with many others I worked damn hard to make it that way.
Don't just be cautious of politicians, be cautious of everyone who is trying to tell you what to think. Be especially cautious of the media - me included. If anyone wants to they can go to www.ietf.org and pull out the HTTP 1.1 spec and you will see my name in the acknowledgements.
