Inventor of the internet to visit New Zealand

Yes, one man can be pretty much credited for the internet as we know it - and it’s not Al Gore.

Vint Cerf is commonly known as the father of the internet.

While at Arpa (now Darpa) during the 1970s - the US military’s high tech development agency - Dr Cerf co-designed (with Robert Kahn) the TCP/IP protocols that underpinned ArpaNet - which later morphed into the civilian internet as we know it today, which still runs on the same basic architecture.

For good measure, Dr Cerf also led the engineering effort that led to the first commercial email programme, MCI mail.

And he also served as a long-time chairman of the board at Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the non-profit body that, under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce, is responsible for managing internet domain names and IP addresses.

To boot, he’s also received the highest civilian honour that can be bestowed in the US, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Today, Dr Cerf is a vice president and “chief technological evangelist” at Google.

He will be in New Zealand to headline the Auckland (August 20) and Wellington (August 21) legs of the “IP6 Hui” co-sponsored by InternetNZ, Telecom and FX Networks. The moving gab-fest will also hit Christchurch on August 19.

Other speakers will include communications minister Steven Joyce and Murray Milner, the consultant whose recent report on the cost of fibre to the home forms a central plank of Telecom’s twin submissions for a single national fibre network (see the full speaker line-up and other details here).

One room
In a statement released through InternetNZ, Dr Cerf said: “The great thing about New Zealand is that it is possible to bring the key public and private decision makers into a room, over a series of only three days, and explore and debate an issue of importance to the nation.

“I’m looking forward to my visit, talking to public and private sector CIOs, IT Managers and CTOs, and identifying how we can ensure a timely uptake of IPv6 in New Zealand.”

Imagine a world without IP6
IP4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, has a number of issues - chief among them that the internet is running out of IP address (the numbers that underpin the alphabetical addresses you type into your browser). That’s no small issue with billions of machines and gadgets expected to join the internet over the coming years - not to mention more people.

IP6 allows for many more addresses, plus a number of technical enhancements that help traffic flow more smoothly around the internet. However, so far adoption has been slow. Dr Cerf’s invention is all grown up, but he’s still trying to help it make its way in the world.