Who, aside from Al Gore, created the internet?

Question

Al Gore made the statement once that he created the internet. Who really created the internet?

Ok..I am sorry Al Gore said
"During my service in the Untied States congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet"
That to me means that he thinks he created the internet!

Answer 1

Al Gore was not around. He simply voted to pass some legislation that helped to grow the network that later became the internet.

The internet started as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1972. That's right, it was started by the US Defense Department. Also, that means that Al Gore was 24 when the internet was "born"; since he started his political career in 1976 he wasn't even around, politically speaking, when the internet was started.

The main reason for the internet at the time was to decentralize the military control of our nation. Those in power believed that if we had a central target for our enemies to hit that we were weaker. With DARPA we had three separate places where all high level defense functions could occur. Read on at the source below.

Answer 2

Al Gore didn't invent or discover diddly. He may have fostered some initiatives to make the internet more freely available. If one can be said to be the father of the internet it is Vint Cerf.

Many people contributed to the development of what we know as the internet but it was first proposed in the early 60's by a researcher under DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and first implemented in or around 1972 as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The premise was to create a network of networks and to provide not only communications capabilities but redundancy in the event of nuclear war. (yeah, the cold war was still on)

For many years it was strictly available to military installations and academic institutions and commercial use or traffic was strictly verboten. This policy ended officially sometime in 1994 or 1995, opening up the internet to become what we now know of it.

You can find a complete history at the Internet Society at http://www.isoc.org It's really quite interesting and likely makes no mention of Al Gore as his role in privatizing the internet is so small as to be inconsequential.

Answer 3

Al Gore fought against the Internet trying to put the Arpanet into DEC corporation control like the many Internetworks before Arpanet. Al Gore voted to cut funding Advanced Research Projects Agency and Al Gore proposed the first legislation to kill and control the Internet. The Internet was the idea of Thomas Provost then at MIT later to operate the Bates Linear Accelerator in Kingsman.
Provost fostered the concepts that make the foundation of TCP IP. He did his development on DecNet because the Internet did not use IP back then.

Answer 4

Jeremy, Bill H is correct. Advanced Research Project Agency initiated it, the only difference that I recall is that they created it to communicate with Universities and think tanks throughout the country. I read somewhere it was 1967 but I dont have the documentation at present to verify that. Do yourself a big favor and dont listen to Al Gore, he is just doing whatever he can to get back into politics because he has nothing else going for him.

Answer 5

The Internet as we know it started when ARPA promoted the idea of several Universities to build a network backbone. Many other organizations connected into this network which became the basis of the internet we know today.

Al Gore never claim to have created or invented the Internet. He proposed the High Performance Computing Act in 1991, which gave federal grants to people like Marc Andreesen to help build the already existing Internet.

Answer 6

No one person or group can claim credit for creating the Internet. For a good analysis of the important players in its development, check out the link in "Know your source" below. I hate to contribute to the thrashing of Algore, but ... someone has to do it. (Hey, hand me another rotten tomato.)

Quote from the website:
"In the end, the History of the Internet is better understood as the history of an era than that of a protocol. To draw a parallel: we are treating the Internet more like a history of transport, which obviously has several threads and origins and important developments, rather than a history of the steam engine (part of the transport history, for sure, but only a small part). This is why we have problems with the TCP/IP origins theory (or the packet switching theory or the telco/infrastructure theory) and that that alone is the history on the Internet. There is so much more to it!

"Multiple events, multiple players, and multiple points of origin need to be mentioned in any sensible understanding of the emergence of the Internet. Any claim by a nation, project, person, or team of individuals, or participants in any single event to "the beginnings of the Internet" is rubbish. Further, any claim that the validity or legitimacy of any structure or arrangement can be justified as Internet governance purely because it arose from one of these events is false. "

Answer 7

I know for a fact that Al Gore did not invent or created the internet. quote me if you want.

Answer 8

al gore created the internet? o.0
first time i heard of that

Answer 9

It was started by the US Army for sending messages among various commands.

Answer 10

Actually, it was Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). It is a series of tubes. That's right, tubes.

Good luck with that FBI/IRS raid, Senator.