Vint Cerf Wants Your Help Re-Imagining the Internet

by David Wagner,   InformationWeek

Google chief Internet evangelist and former ACM president Vint Cerf is starting a new project to solicit ideas from the public about how to improve the Internet, specifically to address issues such as education and what Cerf calls the “Digital Dark Age.”

Cerf, co-recipient in 2004 of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, kicked off the project by posting an open letter on social media site Lettrs.com. Cerf says he chose the format of a letter because he feels modern communication methods are too short and do not involve a lot of thought, compared to the careful consideration people once put into writing letters.

In his letter, Cerf discusses his anxieties about the Digital Dark Age, the looming issue that, as software and technology advance, media recorded using older technology becomes unreadable as that technology falls out of use.

Cerf cites Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln as a perfect example of what might not be possible for historians of the next generation. Goodwin pieced together letters written by President Lincoln and his cabinet to write a book about how they interacted.

“In the case of Doris Kearns Goodwin, the letters were 140 years old, and I would guess that digital content that was created 10 years ago won’t be accessible 10 years from now,” said Cerf. “We have the media around, but you may not be able to read it.”

Cerf also writes about how he hopes the Internet can change education for the better, in particular his excitement about the advent of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Cerf then asks others to follow his example and post their own letters with ideas about how to improve the Internet. He plans to take the best responses and share them online after presenting them at the inaugural Silicon Valley Comic Con next March.  Read the article