By 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."

Founding father of the Internet surveys his domain