Vint Cerf

TYSONS CORNER, VA – Google Vice President Vint Cerf, often called “father of the Internet” for his work on the Internet protocol in the early 1970s, told an audience at the Southeast Venture Conference here Thursday that the mobile Web and security are two areas that the assembled entrepreneurs and venture capitalists should view as opportunities.

Cerf, who advocated for openness and net neutrality as essential to the Internet, also talked about the developing “Interplanetary Internet,” and encouraged the audience to try out the Mars button on Google Earth to travel vicariously over the surface of the planet thanks to imagery from the Mars orbiters and rovers.

Mobile opportunity

Cerf said there are now 4 billion mobile phones, 800 million of which can currently access the Internet. “Over time, a significant fraction of the Net community may be found in the mobile environment, so it is important to anyone thinking about Internet products and services,” he said.

The importance of mobile is the reason Google is investing so much in it with Nexus One and the Android phone, he said.

Cerf was the luncheon keynote speaker at the two-day event at which 60 innovative Southeastern tech companies presented their business plans. Other speakers include Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, and Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association. The event ended Thursday evening.

Asia has most Web users

Discussing use of the Internet globally, he noted that North America has the highest penetration at 75 percent, but no longer boasts the most users. Asia captures that with 738.3 million users, about half in China—and that’s only 20 percent of the Asian population.

Europe, with 52 percent penetration has 418 million users, while North America has 252.9 million.

Africa lags and “Is one of the hardest places to build penetration,” Cerf noted.

Cerf also spoke of the need to adopt IPv6, the new address space standard.

He said security is of growing importance and that the new digitally signed version of the domain name system should help.

Smart grid program another entrepreneurial opportunity

He pointed to the development of a U.S. smart grid program to make the national power system more visible and controllable, saying, “It should offer a major opportunity for many people in this room to participate.”

Pointing to the diversity of applications the Internet now supports, Cerf said, “It wasn’t designed to support any of them. The lesson: don’t get too deeply into the details of what you try to implement. If you stay a little ambiguous, it may support more than you originally planned.”

Cerf talked about the “Dramatic demonstration of the utility of interconnection” offered by the Internet in its use to save lives in Haiti and to give voice to opposition in Iran.

In the recent Haiti disaster, he said, some people buried under rubble were able to tweet that they were stuck and were thus rescued.

Cerf also said that the Internet now connected in ways he had never anticipated. “Like refrigerators,” he said. Or, he added, the ocean surfer who Web enabled his surfboard. “I can imagine him sitting on the ocean waiting for the next wave thinking, ‘Hey I could be surfing the Internet.’ “

Security biggest issue today

Cerf also discussed the rising use of sensors connected to the Internet – such as the one that monitors the temperature of his wine cellar.

“Security is by far the biggest issue on the net today,” Cerf said. While technology may deal with some security issues, he said that changing user behavior—such as getting them to use more secure passwords and to change them often—was also necessary.

Technology may even aid that by coming with ways to make it easy to change a password every time it is used, he said. “Then, even if it’s compromised, it won’t matter, because it won’t work a second time.”

Cerf wrapped up his keynote discussing the semantic Web. Google, he says, would “Really like to know more about the meaning of things. Words can mean different things or different words can mean the same things. It’s a hard nut to crack.”

Developing more insight into “meaning” would improve Google’s ability to provide the right search results, he pointed out.

“We’re dependent upon the research community for a breakthrough,” he said. –Allan Maurer