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The USA Vice-President Al Gore is recently alleged to have made a statement that: "During his service in the United States Congress, he took the initiative in creating the Internet". It should come as no surprise that this attracted a lot of reaction from the rank and file IETF technocrats, who regard the Internet as purely technical evolution. However, the technologists often ignore the fact that technical evolution does not succeed without business and social driving forces and, even more important, without political champions. This is particularly true in relation to the Internet, which is only just now coming of age as an independent commercial entity following the politically driven action by the US Administration to form ICANN.