Correcting the Record: the Government's Role In the Internet

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 24, 2012 @01:24AM from the oh-finally-it's-settled dept.

TwobyTwo writes "Yesterday, Slashdot posted a piece titled Who Really Invented the Internet?. It quoted a Wall Street Journal article with the same title by Gordon Crovitz. Crovitz makes the claim that government research did not play a key role in driving the invention of the Internet, giving credit instead to Xerox PARC. Unfortunately, Crovitz' article is wrong on many specific points, and he's also wrong in his key conclusion about the government's role. In a wonderful piece in the LA Times Michael Hiltzik corrects the record. Hiltzik, who is the author of an excellent book about PARC called Dealers of Lightning, makes clear that government funded research was indeed the foundation for the Internet's success."

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Al Gore by ravenswood1000 · 2012-07-24 01:27 · Score: 1, Flamebait

So it wasn't Al Gore?
Government did it? by BoRegardless · 2012-07-24 01:48 · Score: 0, Flamebait

B.S. Every single thing our elected government leaders have done is the result of people and the groups of people who are called corporations paying taxes to the government to carry out collective tasks, hopefully as efficiently as possible.
The government is just an extension of people who want to have a level playing field including the roads and bridges and such created and maintained so society can continue their daily business.