Vint Cerf Tells Southeast Venture Conference Attendees to Harness Power of Internet
Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet and chief internet evangelist at Google, gave a brief glimpse at the history and future of the Web at an address to the Southeast Venture Conference on Thursday at the Ritz Carlton in McLean, Virginia.
By Avery Fellow | February 26, 2010
Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet and chief internet evangelist at Google
Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet and chief internet evangelist at Google, gave a brief glimpse at the history and future of the Web at an address to the Southeast Venture Conference on Thursday at the Ritz Carlton in McLean, Virginia.
Cerf said the openness of the Web was key to its success, while still leveraging security and privacy concerns.
"Openness was fundamental to the success of the Internet and may be instrumental to many of the companies being formed right now," Cerf said.
One of the greatest features of the Internet is the use of standard interfaces that others can add value to and monetize, Cerf said. He cited Google maps as an example, which can be easily utilized by other services.
"You may not have a corner on all the creativity in the world. We certainly don’t at Google. So you have to harness the Internet," Cerf said.
Currently, the Internet is approaching 2 billion users worldwide, with more than 1.7 billion current users.
"The Internet was designed to ignore international boundaries," Cerf said, referring to the recent crisis in Haiti in which citizens trapped by earthquake debris were able to tweet their location. And mobile is rapidly becoming the most popular platform for Internet use, Cerf said. Among those accessing the Internet using mobile devices, about half don’t have any other form of access to the Internet, he said.
As this happens, "standards are absolutely critical," Cerf said.
Especially in the area of cloud computing, according to Cerf. "This feels like 1973 to me," he said, calling cloud computing "timesharing on steroids." There is a big opportunity right now to standardize the construct of cloud systems, he said.
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