Question 5: Who Wants to be an Internet Nerd!
What Madisonian has been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame?
- Judith Faulker
- Larry Landweber
- Martha Graettinger
- Al Gore
ANSWER
Larry Landweber (CORRECT): The John P. Morgridge Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Landweber laid the foundation what we know as the Internet today with the 1977 networking project, TheoryNet. In 1981, he proposed creation of the Computer Science Network, or CSNET, to link university computer science programs that weren’t part of Arpanet, a U.S. Defense Department network. Landweber is credited with having made the fundamental decision to use the TCP/IP protocol. Landweber was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.
Judith Faulker (WRONG): Even though what Judy Faulkner has done with Epic is really very epic, Judy is not in the Internet Hall of Fame. That said, our health care professionals, Madison and the Dane County Airport owe Judy many thanks for her company’s business and civic contributions to Madison and the Dane County area.
Martha Graettinger (WRONG): Martha and her Shopbot.com cofounder Bob Lamey deserve to be in the Madison e-commerce Hall of Fame for their phenomenal success that started in 1999 with BOP, their brick and mortar store on State Street . That said, neither Martha or Bob are in the Internet Hall of Fame.
Al Gore (WRONG): Contrary to the jokes about then Vice President Gore claiming to have invented the Internet, Al Gore is in the Internet Hall of Fame. Gore successfully champion major legislation (the High-Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991) which allocated funds for high performance computing and helped create the NREN (National Research and Educational Network). The “Gore Bill” also created the National Information Infrastructure (NII) also known as the Information Superhighway. For these efforts, Al Gore was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012 (The same year as Larry Landweber). Nonetheless, whereas Al Gore has visited Madison for many campaign rallies and conferences (Oct. 1, 1992, October 26, 2000, October 9, 2009), Mr. Gore is not a Madisonian – he is from Tennessee.
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