[kictanet] reflecting on the internet

[Rebecca Wanjiku]

Founding father of the Internet surveys his domainBy CLINT SWETT
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
When
the man known as a "founding father of the Internet" looks back on its
30-plus years of existence, Vinton Cerf sees a reflection of our best
and worst instincts.
What has most surprised and pleased the
renowned Internet pioneer has been the continuing avalanche of free
information that's become available since the advent of the worldwide
Web in the mid-1990s.
"I see an enormous desire for people to put
information online with no compensation," said Cerf, speaking Monday
night to a gathering of TechCoire, a group of technology entrepreneurs,
in Davis, Calif.


That information, he said, ranges from technical
papers related to the human genome project to user-written entries on
the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.
"It's created the most
democratic access to information we have ever seen," said Cerf, who in
the 1970s helped develop software that became the basis for
transmitting everything from e-mail to movies over the Internet. These
days, in addition to staying busy with various Internet projects, Cerf
serves as Google Inc.'s "chief Internet evangelist."
In his talk,
he also noted the number of less benign impulses that also flourish
online. "We get spam, viruses, worms ... fraud and worthless content,"
Cerf said. 



"But we've already dealt with these problems in another
context," noting that fraud has occurred for decades via the telephone
and the Postal Service.
Clad in his trademark three-piece suit
set off with a crimson handkerchief, Cerf predicted that much of the
Internet's future growth will be tied to mobile devices such as
BlackBerry-style gadgets.
He recalled being on a boat in southern
India several months ago. "I was in the middle of this big lake and
thinking I couldn't possibly get any service," said Cerf. "I turned on
my BlackBerry and got 300 e-mails."


That reinforced the notion
that the Net's reach can far exceed the expensive telephone lines and
cables that are now standard for getting online.
That could be
especially powerful in places like Africa where only about 35 million
of that continent's estimated 1 billion inhabitants have Internet
access, he said.
He also predicted that scores of Internet-connected devices will someday be linked in a seamless way.
For
example, Cerf said, different foods sitting in a Net-connected
refrigerator might contain radio frequency tags identifying them by
type and date purchased. The fridge could inventory the food, compile
recipes and even alert you to shortages while you're shopping. "You'll
get a message from your refrigerator saying, 'Don't forget the marinara
sauce,'" he said.
In addition to his position with Google, Cerf
is chairman of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers that oversees Internet naming issues, and is working with
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on ways to efficiently transmit data
in outer space.


Cerf's job with Google, a part-time position he's
held since 2005, includes talking with college students about the
Internet's technical challenges.
"Even though the Internet has
been around for 35 years, there's lots of problems that need to be
solved," he said, including beefing up security and finding more
efficient ways to transmit data.
And the 63-year-old Cerf
apparently has no plans to ease into retirement. "I consider it a
successful day," he said, "when I wear out two 26-year-olds."





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