I think he was referring to the internet as the World Wide Web specifically (the two words have the same meaning now but it wasn't always the case). Which unless I am mistaken (its been a while since I learned this) was created back in '89 by Tim Berners-Lee and not Al Gore no matter what he tells you lol.
I'm not entirely sure when the first time I utilized non-web based computer communications but I know it involved a BBS =) I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people who were using similar stuff long before I was either way.








