IP: The technology president:

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/opinion/columns/078563.htm

Published Tuesday, September 19, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News




> JOHN DOERR AND BILL JOY
>
>
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>
>
> The technology president: From wiring schools to a Net tax moratorium to
> globalization, Gore gets it better than anyone
> BY JOHN DOERR AND BILL JOY
>
>
> You hear it all the time: Who cares about this presidential campaign? Gore,
> Bush -- there's not a dime's worth of difference between them. The country
> is at peace. The economy is booming. What difference does it make who sits
> in an oval office, 3,000 miles away?
>
>
> A big, big difference, we think.
>
>
> The boom we're enjoying didn't happen by accident. Although it was driven
> by smart, risk-taking entrepreneurs, particularly in places like the
> valley,
> the current presidential administration played an integral part in making
> the boom happen. Its policies have been farsighted and rooted in a firm
> understanding of the dynamics of the New Economy. And nobody in Washington
> understands those dynamics, and has done more to encourage them than Al
> Gore.
>
>
> Gore has been, in effect, the chief architect of our national technology
> and information policy for nearly 25 years. In his early years in the House
> and
> Senate, he was among the first national politicians to recognize the scale
> of the changes being unleashed by chips and bits and networks of fiber. He
> co-authored the Small Business Innovation Research program, helping small
> businesses bring new technologies to market. He introduced the
> Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986, which created the University of
> Illinois
> lab where Marc Andreessen and the half-dozen kids who would later found
> Netscape developed the first graphic Web browser, Mosaic. Gore sponsored
> the
> High Performance Computing Act of 1991, which boosted federal support for
> the
> Internet backbone by billions of dollars; and the Information
> Infrastructure and Technologies Act of 1992, which invested billions more
> in
> technology to improve education, expand health care and create jobs.
>
>
> And despite all the jokes about him creating the Internet, the truth is
> this: Gore was speaking with clarity and passion about the advent of a
> seamless global information network long before most in the Valley had
> dreamed of such a network. Gore didn't call it the Internet; he called it
> the ``information superhighway.'' The name hardly matters. The point is he
> foresaw it, worked for it, got it.
>
>
> As vice president, Gore was instrumental in the administration's economic
> program and took charge of its technology agenda. He led the fight for
> global free trade. He played a key role pushing through the sweeping
> overhaul of the telecom industry in 1996, which championed competition over
> bureaucracy and monopolies. He helped discourage frivolous shareholder
> lawsuits and steadfastly argued that the government should ``keep its hands
> off the Internet,'' arguing in favor of a moratorium on Internet taxation
> and of regulating cyberspace with a light touch, if at all.
>
>
> Through all his efforts, Gore has worked to ensure that all Americans have
> the opportunity to benefit from the wonders of the new economy. He has
> focused on areas where technology and education come together. He helped
> create the E-rate program, which is wiring our nation's schools and
> libraries for Internet access. He's pushed for testing and accountability
> in education, charter public schools, smaller class size, and more teachers
> with the time and incentives to be well prepared.
>
>
> Gore understands deeply that although the New Economy was born in America,
> it's not just an American thing -- globalization matters, and more so every
> day. In the next four years, the president will face complex and delicate
> international issues: global environmental regulation; global labor
> standards; tariffs and trade. Having a president with experience and a firm
> grasp of the complexities of the world would be a very good thing.
>
>
> The New Economy has improved the way we live and work. It has led to record
> growth, more than 20 million new jobs, low inflation, and an incredibly
> favorable entrepreneurial culture. Think of all of the changes that have
> happened over the past eight years, many of which are accelerating at
> Internet speed. Think of all the possibilities and opportunities yet to
> come.
>
>
> To deal with these changes and make good these opportunities, we must elect
> a leader who understands where we've been and where we can go in the future
> -- and who has the intelligence and competence to lead us there.
>
>
> We need Al Gore.
>
>
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> John Doerr is a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture
> capital firm in Menlo Park. Bill Joy is co-founder and chief scientist of
> Sun Microsystems.