The history of the DIS boards

[mla2177]

Hi! I am fairly new to the DIS boards, although I am truly addicted now! I was wondering when did the DIS boards start and by who? Is WDW involved in any way with it?

 

[mtemm]

Pete started it years ago. I found it a little over 8 years ago (join date says 99, but that was because of the crash, it was really 8/98), and think it had been around a year or 2 before that. It used to be much much smaller, just a board, then 3 or so. Its amazing to see how its grown and changed over the years.

 

[mla2177]

Who is Pete? Is he affiliated w/ WDW in anyway, or just a fan like us?

 

[mtemm]

Pete Werner is a fan. he moved to orlando to be near wdw and started this site (or did he start the site then move, I'm fuzzy on that for some reason). nope, not affiliated with wdw.

 

[Barb D]

June, 1997. Here's another thread on the topic, with lots of info:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=636092&referrerid=&highlight=dis+history

 

[Pop Daddy]

I think Al Gore invented this place

 

[Charade]

I think Al Gore invented this place

 

[Mugg Mann]

I think Al Gore invented this place

I always find your one-liners to be funny, especially when you twist things that aren't true and try to pretend that they are. Sometimes that's the best type of humor!

From Snopes.com, non-partisan debunker of urban myths;

Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.
Status: False.

Origins: Despite the derisive references that continue even today, Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs were misleading, out-of-context distortions of something he said during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and perhaps self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible, in an economic and legislative sense, for fostering the development the technology that we now know as the Internet. To claim that Gore was seriously trying to take credit for the "invention" of the Internet is, frankly, just silly political posturing that arose out of a close presidential campaign. Gore never used the word "invent," and the words "create" and "invent" have distinctly different meanings — the former is used in the sense of "to bring about" or "to bring into existence" while the latter is generally used to signify the first instance of someone's thinking up or implementing an idea. (To those who say the words "create" and "invent" mean exactly the same thing, we have to ask why, then, the media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he "invented" the Internet, even though he never used that word, and transcripts of what he actually said were readily available.)

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while President, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

Whether Gore's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" is justified is a subject of debate. Any statement about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continuously being modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977.

It is true, though, that Gore was popularizing the term "information superhighway" in the early 1990s (although he did not, as is often claimed by others, coin the phrase himself) when few people outside academia or the computer/defense industries had heard of the Internet, and he sponsored the 1988 National High-Performance Computer Act (which established a national computing plan and helped link universities and libraries via a shared network) and cosponsored the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 (which opened the Internet to commercial traffic).

In May 2005, the organizers of the Webby Awards for online achievements honored Al Gore with a lifetime achievement award for three decades of contributions to the Internet. "He is indeed due some thanks and consideration for his early contributions," said Vint Cerf.

Last updated: 5 May 2005



The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

 

[hiwaygal]

Who is Pete? Is he affiliated w/ WDW in anyway, or just a fan like us?

Pete is also the CEO of Dreams Unlimited Travel.

 

[WDWLVR]

Hi! I am fairly new to the DIS boards, although I am truly addicted now! I was wondering when did the DIS boards start and by who? Is WDW involved in any way with it?

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disclaimer.htm This link should help give you some background.

 

[Serena]

I always find your one-liners to be funny, especially when you twist things that aren't true and try to pretend that they are. Sometimes that's the best type of humor!

From Snopes.com, non-partisan debunker of urban myths;

Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.
Status: False.

Origins: Despite the derisive references that continue even today, Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs were misleading, out-of-context distortions of something he said during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and perhaps self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible, in an economic and legislative sense, for fostering the development the technology that we now know as the Internet. To claim that Gore was seriously trying to take credit for the "invention" of the Internet is, frankly, just silly political posturing that arose out of a close presidential campaign. Gore never used the word "invent," and the words "create" and "invent" have distinctly different meanings — the former is used in the sense of "to bring about" or "to bring into existence" while the latter is generally used to signify the first instance of someone's thinking up or implementing an idea. (To those who say the words "create" and "invent" mean exactly the same thing, we have to ask why, then, the media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he "invented" the Internet, even though he never used that word, and transcripts of what he actually said were readily available.)

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while President, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

Whether Gore's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" is justified is a subject of debate. Any statement about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continuously being modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977.

It is true, though, that Gore was popularizing the term "information superhighway" in the early 1990s (although he did not, as is often claimed by others, coin the phrase himself) when few people outside academia or the computer/defense industries had heard of the Internet, and he sponsored the 1988 National High-Performance Computer Act (which established a national computing plan and helped link universities and libraries via a shared network) and cosponsored the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 (which opened the Internet to commercial traffic).

In May 2005, the organizers of the Webby Awards for online achievements honored Al Gore with a lifetime achievement award for three decades of contributions to the Internet. "He is indeed due some thanks and consideration for his early contributions," said Vint Cerf.

Last updated: 5 May 2005



The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

You do realize he was joking right?

I wasn't here from the very beginning, but almost. It's been interesting watching this place grow.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I think Al Gore invented this place

But you know what's funnier? Mugg Man's post

Seriously though, I have only been around four about 5 years (lurked a while before I joined). In that time I have seen DIS grow and evolve in some really great ways. I consider it to be on the internet's hidden jewels. This is a wonderful community! Thanks to Pete for starting it all

 

[Mugg Mann]

I'd be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to thank Pete as well for finding a very unique way to bring people from all slices of life all over the world together.

Thanks Pete!

 

[Polyfor30th]

Great community!
I'm, erm, a shy poster and after many years of lurking I performed a sort of immersion therapy and finally joined to help overcome the anxiety of the aforementioned poster-shyness--we'll see how I do.

Thanks for the DIS history links--looking forward to reading up more.

 

[Soccermom-Cheri]

I'd be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to thank Pete as well for finding a very unique way to bring people from all slices of life all over the world together.

Thanks Pete!

I second that: THANKS!

... I would give up Starbuck's before giving up my DIS addiction.

 

[rascalmom]

OOooops! I accidentally just bumped the old thread - meant to post on this one.

Anyways, Thanks Pete!!!!