Vint Cerf, who is leaving MCI, where he served as senior vice president for technology strategy, adds to a growing list of high-profile workers poached from other companies by the popular Mountain View search engine.
He was co-designer of some of the Internet’s underlying architecture in the 1970s while an assistant professor at Stanford University. With partner Robert Kahn, he developed the technology that allows computers to share information, setting the stage for the World Wide Web, e-mail and instant messaging.
Cerf will join Google Oct. 3 and have the title chief Internet evangelist. He has worked at MCI for 11 years, primarily on the basic infrastructure behind its Internet, video and voice services.
Not a bad job title.
Cerf’s hiring raises speculation that Google will create a national wireless Internet network, known as Wi-Fi, that would allow users to go online no matter where they are. Another area where he might be involved, some surmised, is expanding the company’s nascent initiative to offer Internet telephone calls.
The big breakthrough for Cerf was developing transmission control protocol/Internet protocol, or TCP/IP, a way to transmit data between computers. The technology, initially funded through a grant from the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, allows data to be broken up into individual packets and routed to the appropriate computer.
Glad you’re back to the tech articles today, that’s what I look to your expertise for. That’s where I find you the most clever and witty.
Bummer my comment on the top 10 list from yesterday was omitted. 🙁
Can anyone recall someone adding anything to the technology landscape with the title ‘evangelist’? It seems to have become a replacement term for ‘semi-retired’.
That being said, a national wi-fi network is the next big thing. Look at it this way: My television, internet, cell phone and home phone is handled by the four companies I feel provide me the best service in those areas (DirecTV, Comcast, Verizon, and Qwest). That’s four bills, and total about $260 a month.
There’s no reason a wi-fi provider can’t come in, give me every service under one bill, and collect that cash from me every month.