IP: VP Gore, Earth, & VRML

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

Seems to me credit is due to the VP for making it widely known . Dave


Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 10:29:40 -0800 
From: Jeff Ubois <jeff () ubois com> 


The Washington Post and the SF Chronicle ran an interesting article today
describing an effort by VP Gore to get NASA to generate and broadcast a 24
hour a day real time image of the earth [The World, Live -- Just A Click
Away By Kathy Sawyer Friday, March 13, 1998; Page A01].


"Based on a moment of midnight inspiration, Vice President Gore today will
announce his plan to make a live video image of the full, sunlit Earth --
spinning on its axis against the blackness of space -- continuously
available to the world, via television and the Internet.


The vice president's idea and, perhaps more important, his sense of urgency
have triggered a scramble at NASA to make it happen inexpensively -- and
fast."


Note that the article claims Gore thought of this ... but it’s already been
done by VRML guru Mark Pesce and others who credit author Neal Stephenson
with the idea. Check out http://tcc.iz.net/we/left.html, which says:


"WebEarth builds a VRML model of Gaia as it is right now . Drawing from
composite sattelite photos created by John Walker, WebEarth employs a set
of server-side scripts which build the model and maintain the current image
database.


WebEarth requires a VRML 2.0 compatble plug-in, such as Intervista's
Worldview or Silicon Graphics' Cosmo Player.


Thanks to Neal Stephenson for the inspiration, ART+COM for proving it could
be done, and Lou Stern for asking me if it can update itself automatically.
(It does, every 60 minutes.)" Independent inventions happen, spokesmen may
not know where their boss got a good idea, and it is nice to have a VP who
likes most computer tech except encryption.  Still, I wonder whose
inspiration this was, especially given the feds' new found fanaticism on
intellectual property.  Maybe credit ought to go where it's due?