Father of Internet commends CSOs, says Internet’s peoples enterprise

Remmy Nweke in San Francisco, California, United States

One of the founding fathers of the Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf has commended members of the Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) across the world for making the Internet a people oriented enterprise of today.

For him, the Civil Society Organisation should not despair in their bid to make the Internet a people oriented platform for communication.

Cerf who is reputed to have co-authored the technical foundation of the Internet; the Transmission Control Protocol cum Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) alongside Bob Kahn, said that he expects Civil Society Organisation to put in more drive now that the Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) has been officially realized.

He pointed out that quantum of information on the internet would rise astronomically, which could discourage governments to place various undue regulation on the Internet and its accessibility.

He urged CSOs to keep watch, noting that the transparency Internet and ICANN have earned in the last years was the steadfastness of civil societies.

Speaking at a cocktail put together by the North American Regional At-Large Organisation (NARALO) at the on-going 40^th public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Dr. Cerf expressed glad on the progress made by the knowledge shared by a few to the world.

He noted that at the beginning the Internet was not popular because it was ‘openly source’ but things turned around and were attracted to Internet due to free information exchange.

Introducing Cerf earlier, the president and chief executive officer of ICANN, Mr. Rod Beckstrom described him as one of the fathers of the Internet that deserves every honour.

He also noted that he has continued to play active role in ICANN formation and sustenance, having been chairman of its board of trustees for over seven years before stepping aside to join Google as the vice president and chief internet evangelist.

He later made presentations to Dr. Cerf of his two books at the event.

ITRealms Online recalls that Dr. Cerf, has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005, which he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services from Google, just as he is an active public face for Google in the Internet world.

Cerf is the former senior vice president of Technology Strategy for the Microwave Communications Inc (MCI), where he was responsible for helping to guide corporate strategy development from the technical perspective.

Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology, leading a team of architects and engineers to design advanced networking frameworks including Internet-based solutions for delivering a combination of data, information, voice and video services for business and consumer use.

Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.

In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 for their work on the Internet protocols, which is at times called the "Nobel Prize of Computer Science."

In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work, which is the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens; in addition to their receiving the prestigious Japan Prize in 2008.

Before rejoining MCI in 1994, Cerf was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). As vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982-1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.

During his tenure from 1976-1982 with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related packet data and security technologies.

Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007. Cerf also served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board.

A honorary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, Cerf is dedicated to raising awareness and speeding introduction of the new Internet protocol. Cerf served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and serves on several national, state and industry committees focused on cyber-security among others.
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