Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer, at SLA’s Opening Session
Vinton Cerf is the opening speaker at the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference. A former senior vice president at MCI, with Robert Kahn, he co-designed the TCP/IP protocol and basic architecture of the Internet. Now, he’s Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google. (What a fab title!) Charlie Rose is interviewing him.
“For a guy who does a television program five nights a week, you guys are my heroes,” Charlie Rose says with his hands held out toward the audience. Getting good information and knowing how to ask the correct questions are critical, he explains.
Vint begins by giving us a history lesson of networked defense communication technology. Vint and Bob rolled out their development about ten years after (I can’t tell if he’s saying DARPAnet or ARPAnet). It took about another twenty (?) years before they could share it with the academic community.
“And what did Al Gore do?” Charlie inquires.
While we joke about this a lot, Vint smiles, Al is a friend and actually played a role in figuring out how to use the network for more than defense work.
“As Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, I’ve only converted 3.2 billion people. I have about 5 billion people to go.”
Information should be afforadable. It’s a challenge in poorer areas of the world.
“Mobile technology has grown even quicker than the Internet. … We don’t have to string wires for mobile technology … There are 3 billion mobiles in use right now.”
“I’m feeling very positive about everyone on the planet having Internet access within the next ten years or so.”
“Broadband/wired service is important. Wireless service is important. The two of them together will be vital.”
Vint is mostly talking on his own. Charlie is asking very few questions.
“The [Internet architecture] was designed to be open so that anyone can join in. This openness has started a great cornucopia of innovation and creativity.” Major Internet pioneers, like Google’s founders, didn’t have to get permission before starting companies. Vint wants to preserve that. [applause]
Vint related an amusing story about the first time he used the virtual world Second Life and couldn’t figure out how to fly. “I guess I’m geek orthodox,” he jokes.
“Every blog on the average has about 1.1 reader. You read your blog and maybe one of your buddies does.” [Hello, buddy!]
Access to knowledge is critical. “The idea that the world’s knowledge is at your fingertips is just wonderful.” Librarians play a vital role in connecting people to information.
“The digitization of libraries. Where are we on that?” Charlie prods.
Vint outlines some of Google’s projects in broad brush strokes. [I've written about them before, so I'm not going to do that now.] “Digital objects are very complex things. … These things may not even be representable in traditional ways.” Take formulas on a spreadsheet, for example. He’s a little worried about the consequences of digitizing all information. He fears we’re relying too much on software to get to digital objects. If we lose access to the software, what happens to the digital objects we’ve created. Bit rot, I think, is what he calls it. It is, indeed, a very real problem. What can we do to preserve software, he wonders.
“What about Google?” Charlie encourages a continuation.
Maybe, but other companies have roles in that, too, Vint furthers.
“Do we need a government commission or would that mean we won’t get results?” Charlie asks.
“You just answered your own question,” Vint replies.
The openness of the Internet is key. Charlie believes it has changed science and Vint expounds on that. Sharing information expands knowledge rapidly in many fields.
“Sharing information works. Many people say ‘Information is power.’ I say ‘Sharing information is power.’”
Vint made a joke about a Jet Propulsion Lab information technology project for deep space communication where he and his colleagues have been working hard to “make it so,” a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s frequent request.
When Charlie inquires about standards, Vint agrees that some are important so that tech companies can work with each other, especially around the world.
Because the Internet is global in scope, we may need international agreements about conduct on the ‘net, especially when it comes to cyberterrorists. We often don’t notice how important things are or how much we rely on them until there’s a problem.
“We need to find a way to detect and elminate malware,” Vint thinks. [I hoped he was going to plug StopBadware, a Berkman project Google supports, but he didn't. *nods to EG*]
Vint suggests solar powered computers and Internet cafes and some ways they can connect to the Internet via satellite.
“How long might it take for half the world’s population to be online?”
By the end of the decade, perhaps it’s possible. Mobile technology will cause a jump in the numbers of people online. Getting past seventy percent will be a challenge.
“There’s an Internet in your future. Resistence is futile,” Vint quips.
Charlie wants to know about international censorship.
“Every country has access to the Internet and they cannot escape the importance to their economy. In its absence, it will wane. In the long run, information will flow.” Many countries have tried to stop it, but it doesn’t work. “There’s a potential hazard here. If access to the Internet is constrained by its providers …” bad things will happen.
“What’s going to happen with search?” Charlie wonders.
Semantics, growth in what will be searchable, basically the answer you’d expect from someone at Google …
Vint praises Sir Tim Berners-Lee for his work.
“What about a natural user interface and voice recognition?”
Some things are easy, but natural discourse is difficult. “Google just broke the barrier,” Vint brags, “Google broke the .5 barrier on the BLEU scale.” A translator can work with the text without using the original source. It’s a very difficult challenge and we’re not quite there yet, but that’s big progress.
“Artificial intelligence?”
“As opposed to artificial idiot? As soon as you can make it work, it’s not artificial intelligence anymore. … It has to be aware of the world. … Until computers have experiences like those [like ours] …” we won’t really have true artificial intelligence.
“Do you expect the US to lead the way with the Internet?”
Vint clears up some misconceptions by explaining the Internet is not just a US development. He credits the French with some work on TCP/IP. Many people from around the world have contributed to it and will continue to do so.
“What makes you optimistic about the Internet and what do you fear?”
The Internet knows no boundaries. Software is a borderless frontier. But people might try to shut it down for any number of reasons.
Telecom companies charging per transfered bit is a huge mistake. We never know how many bits we’re going to be transferring. We’re going to be inhibited when using the ‘net because we will fear the bill. Charging based on speed is a better plan.
“What is the next big idea? What would you say?”
“If I was really smart enough to know, I’d be off doing it at the moment,” he chuckles. Mobile technology is fabulous and powerful, even though a Blackberry has a screen the size of a 1928 television and keyboard meant for people 3 inches tall. He wants to be able to use his mobile phone as a remote control for devices in his house that are networked together and available over the ‘net. “Of course, if it’s on the ‘net, the teenager next door can reprogram your house, which is why we need security.”
There was no opportunity for the audience to ask him questions.
