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IP: The technology president:
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 18:30:52 -0400
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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- 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.
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