Al Gore is being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame; after all, he invented it, right?
Of course, one of the politician’s biggest gaffes is during his bungled 2000 presidential run in which he made comments to suggest he was somehow the one responsible for the creation of the Internet.
While he’ll always be chided for that, the truth is that Gore did make a significant contribution to paving the way for what would become a global online network.
Gore is one of 33 individuals being honored as inaugural members of the Internet Hall of Fame, a distinction that is being unveiled at the Global INET 2012 conference in Geneva.
Sponsored by the Internet Society, the Hall of Fame is recognizing everyone from political figures who made everything possible from a legal standpoint, to the actual engineers and developers who created it.
Gore fits the former category. The Internet Society praised Gore with the following description:
“Instrumental in helping to create the ‘Information Superhighway,’ Gore was one of the first government officials to recognize that the Internet’s impact could reach beyond academia to fuel educational and economic growth as well.”
Many people ofen quote Gore as saying he invented the Internet, but the actual quotation is, “I took the initiative in creating the Internet,” which is admittedly still pretty self-serving.
Gore is the only member of the Internet Hall of Fame who is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
