“Some people say information is power. Baloney. Information sharing is power!”

So spoke Vint Cerf, “father of the Internet” and keynote speaker at the opening session of SLA 2008. Cerf responded with wit and intellect to perceptive questions from his interviewer Charlie Rose. Given the title of Internet Evangelist at Google, Cerf figured he’d better have a religion, so he calls himself Geek Orthodox.

Future-facing ideas and endeavors:

• Mobile computing will expand the reach of the Internet and lower the barriers to access.
• The key to the huge success of the Internet is its openness—something to be vigilantly defended against attack.
• The Interplanetary Internet is Cerf’s effort to standardize network protocols for data transmission across the solar system.
• His Internet Cafe Project intends to provide Internet access to people in remote locations around the world. With solar-powered systems connected by satellite, the cafes are meant to be run as for-profit businesses.

Just listening to Vint Cerf is a mental exercise—illuminating and exciting.