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Wired West: Volume 11, no. 4

SLA Opening General Session - Vint Cerf interviewed by Charlie Rose

By Kate Bird

Journalist Charlie Rose set a great tone with the audience in his opening remarks. Rose said that as he worked on a television show five days a week (Charlie Rose on PBS, which he has hosted since 1991), he was dependent on good information.

"This is how stupid I am," Rose said. "I didn't even know you had an association! You are my heroes."

The crowd cheered.

Then he introduced his interview subject for the session, Vint Cerf, author of the code that made the world wide web possible. and known as the father of the Internet. A self-described "Geek Orthodox", Cerf presently works at Google, where his official title is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist.

What followed was a wide-ranging and inspiring chat between two intelligent and articulate men. Cerf discussed the history and future of the Internet from its' beginning as a defense department project to its evolution into a mass tool for information sharing; from spam to the ongoing project to provide Internet access to everyone on the planet within the next 10 years.

Cerf predicted that the volume of digital materials will eventually outweigh that of printed materials, and he expressed deep concern over the software required to technically support digital objects so that stored information on obsolete formats does not become a "midden of moldering bits". While the saying goes that 'information is power', Cerf, believes that "information sharing is power." When Rose asked Cerf what concerned him the most about the future of the Internet, Cerf said he hoped that "it remains open, that it has no boundaries", although with commercial and government interests at work, he fears that this may not be realistic.

Finally, Rose asked Cerf what he thinks is the next big idea for the Internet. It seems that Cerf has been working with a global group for the past ten years on developing an interplanetary Internet. It doesn't get much bigger than that.

Kate Bird is the News/Graphics Research Librarian at The Vancouver Sun & The Province.

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