SXSWORLD

2 6 SXS W O R L D | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 | SXSW.COM Vint Cerf, photo courtesy of IEEE " Father of the Internet " Looking to Expand Global Connectivity By Patrick Nichols nectivity' from Arabic. PCI, in partnership with the IEEE Tunisia Section Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technologies (SIGHT), is working to greatly extend Internet access and deliver practical, value-based application knowledge in order to educate and empower young people throughout the country."  His goal for SXSW is to inspire those attending his session to generate new ideas and lend their entrepreneurial talents to help make the Internet more affordable, accessible and sustainable. "My hope is that people leave the session with thoughts to how they might get involved and make a contribution to these efforts," he said.  Cerf also invites those unable to attend his session to join in the push for global connectivity. "We urge people to come to our website, peoplecentered.net, and to share their ideas and their will- ingness to join the effort to take the Internet where it has not gone before and to make it locally useful. We look for sustainable growth of Internet applications and Internet-enabled businesses that can serve local and global users."  Such growth is likely to come through a blend of public and pri- vate sector initiatives, meaning there is room for corporations, NGOs and everyone in between. Cerf explains: "We think many business models are feasible, some commercial, some non-profit, some citizen and community oriented, some government sponsored. If the conditions that support, encourage and facilitate entre- preneurs are present, one can anticipate a great deal of creative development."  While this will be Cerf's first SXSW, he is a long-time admirer of the festival and looks forward to the experience. "More than anything, I am eager to mingle with the SXSW audience and par- ticipants in the IEEE-hosted events and parties, to hear more about what is exciting them, what challenges they see in the future, and what new technologies are coming to light that will bear fruit in the future." The IEEE Tech for Humanity Series will run March 11-16, with 15 total events including the Inter- active session "Vint Cerf: An Internet For and By the People," an official SXSW Party at the Drisk- ill Hotel, and the "IEEE and PCI Future of the Internet Meetup" with Vint Cerf. V int Cerf is a man with many titles: Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, founder of the People Centered Internet, recip- ient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom among other honors. This year, he will add something new to his already illus- trious resume—SXSW speaker and attendee.  Even if you aren't familiar with Vint Cerf, you almost cer- tainly use a product of his work on a daily basis. Cerf's pioneering research on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) began at Stanford University in 1973. Combined with Internet Protocol (IP), the TCP/IP protocols would become one of the backbone architectures of the Internet. He would later be given the nickname "Father of the Internet."  While appreciative, Cerf is quick to point out that he is not the only father figure. "Many cultures tend to look for heroes to whom they can attribute major accomplishments," he said. "In the 1990s, when the World Wide Web became popular, the Internet was rec- ognized as the underlying infrastructure that made the web useful and widespread. Sir Tim Berners-Lee developed the WWW pro- tocols to run on top of TCP/IP. People asked where TCP/IP came from and discovered the first paper about the Internet that was written by Robert Kahn and me and published in May 1974 in IEEE Transactions on Communications. Bob and I were identified with the Internet's early development."  Countless others have contributed to the implementation, testing and expansion of their work in the ensuing decades. "Several thou- sand engineers have worked over the last 30 years on standards for the TCP/IP protocol suite in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and hundreds of thousands if not millions of others have developed applications for the Internet since it was first made operational on January 1, 1983," said Cerf. "There is a great deal of credit to go around, so I feel that this term needs to be taken with some humility."  After leaving the Stanford faculty, Cerf worked in executive roles at such influential technology organizations as DARPA, MCI and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives before joining Google in 2005. He recently co-founded People Centered Internet (PCI) with Mei Lin Fung.  Cerf will make his SXSW debut as a headliner of the sixth-an- nual IEEE Tech for Humanity Series. An IEEE Life Fellow, he will highlight the transformational potential of grassroots innova- tion in expanding global Internet connectivity.  "Once connected to the net, users have access to vast quantities of information, discoveries of new products, services and advanced scientific and engineering data from which beneficial applications can be built. We see the Internet as a 21st century means to improve GDP growth, education and opportunity to invent," he said.  "A good example of how we'll achieve this is a current project undertaken in Tunisia named TAWASOL, which translates to 'con-

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