Vinton Cerf
Vinton Cerf
Vinton Gray Cerf ForMemRS,is an American Internet pioneer, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-inventor Bob Kahn and packet switching inventors Paul Baran and Donald Davies, among others. His contributions have been acknowledged and lauded, repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Marconi Prize and membership in the National Academy of Engineering...
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth23 June 1943
CityNew Haven, CT
I started thinking about the past 25 years as the Internet evolved, and I thought, 'Gee, what should we be doing now so that in another 25 years, we are ready for whatever's coming?'
Cerf is a wicked smart guy who knows the ins and outs of the internet and internet policies better than anyone,
Of course, I've done small company things, too, but most of them have been nonprofit organizations, such as the Internet Society, and I'm on the board of a number of small companies.
It took 30 years to get the Internet to where we are now. Thirty years from now, we have to assume there will be colonies on the moon, colonies on Mars and other planets and research stations all over.
It's Chief Internet Evangelist, which suggests I should go from three-piece suits to some sort of ecclesiastical robes.
Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success.
This is not a new interest for me, ... It's just that I've spent the last decade or so working more on basic Internet infrastructure evolution at MCI. But I've been increasingly interested in focusing back on the application level, higher layer stuff. So this is a wonderful opportunity to pursue that.
The Internet lives where anyone can access it.
By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform for innovation.
We will have more Internet, larger numbers of users, more mobile access, more speed, more things online and more appliances we can control over the Internet.
The Internet reflects the societies in which we live, and so the content on the Net and some of the abuses that you see on the Net are reflections of that.
The structure of the W3C didn't lend itself to quite the degree of freedom to contribute that the IETF does. We found it difficult to get points across and to influence what was happening.
The time is now to think beyond the Earth. Lest you think this is all fantasy, let me assure you that it is quite real.
Putting in capacity (in a business) that's exponentially growing means putting more capacity than expected so you don't get overrun by demand. You have to stay ahead of it.