OT: Gore Still Ahead (was: Re: [asterisk-biz] New Wholesale Company)

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 10:39:41AM -0400, C F wrote:
> >>                                                    Since the whole
> >> paragraph only speaks about the Intenet in that one sentence (I took
> >> the initiative.....), then it's NOT out of context to say that he
> >> claimed he invented the Internet.
> >
> >Again, no, it's not out of context.  It's merely incorrect.
> >
> >If one chooses to interpret Gore's usage of "Internet" to mean "the
> >commercial Internet that we have today", then yes, the initiatives he
> >worked on, including NREN, probably had a lot to do with it.
> 
> OK, I'm listening, since this was on TV in English, can you explain
> what other meaning Internet has in the English language?
> 
> This is my source, which disagrees with your English interpretation
> for the word Internet:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

"The Internet is the largest equivalence class in the reflexive
transitive symmetric closure of the relationship "can be reached by an
IP packet from".
--Seth Breidbart

But for our purposes here, The Internet is a large commercial network
service utility to which you can purchase access from any number of
competing vendors, which can carry any traffic, whether commercial or
not, and which has a sufficiently large number of service providers (and
potential clients) attached to it to make it a worthwhile thing to spend
your money connecting to.  (Metcalfe's Law.)

That's not what it looked like exactly 10 years ago, and one of the
major contributors to that was Gore, and the programs he mentions
championing.

Asterisk wouldn't exist in anything like it's current form had the
Internet not Gone Commercial, since one of its major selling points is
it's ability to connect with all the commercial VoIP providers we see
on -biz... who wouldn't have a network to get your packets to them
otherwise.

Is he solely responsible?  No.  Did he have lots of help?  Yes.

Is he correct to use the phrase "create the Internet" to imply "as we
know it today"?  Clearly, there's a disagreement here.  But let's not
fight that battle over the definition of "is", 'k?

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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