PodLeaders - Thought Leaders podcast

I was honoured to have as my guest on the show today Vint Cerf - Vint Cerf was one of the key figures in the creation of the Internet. During the interview, it transpired that Vint doesn’t have a blog - but he said now that I had suggested it, that it would be a good idea!

Vint worked with Bob Kahn on the ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet) and in creating TCP and TCP/IP, the protocols which allow diverse computers to communicate over networks like the Internet.

He led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.

He is the chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on creating an Interplanetary Protocol to facilitate communications from planet to planet, using radio/lasers that are highly tolerant to signal degradation.

He has been awarded many honarary degrees, the Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award, the SIGCOMM Award, the US National Medal of Technology, the Premio Principe de Asturias de Investigacion Cientifica, the ACM’s Turing Award and in November 2005, Vint Cerf was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In September of 2005 Google Inc. announced that it had hired Vint Cerf as their “Chief Internet Evangelist”.

Here are the questions I asked Vint in the interview and the times at which I asked them:

Vint, you are widely credited with the invention of TCP/IP - the network protocol on which the Internet runs, can you tell us how you came up with TCP/IP? - 1:20

You are now working on the Interplanetary protocol allowing communication from planet to planet - what do you see as the main use of Interplanetary network? - 3:13

Your job title at Google - Chief internet Evangelist - sounds like the easiest job in the world - what does a Chief Internet Evangelist actually do? - 7:36

What is Google’s rationale behind rolling out free wi-fi? - 10:27

Google Analytics is free, Google Maps is free - what is the monetisation behind doing this? - 12:33

So it is about generating more traffic to get more eyeballs for the ads? - 15:09

Is there any restriction on people using Google Maps having to use Google Ads? - 16:31

Google have recently bought a 5% share of Aol - will you now be presenting graphical ads on Google results? - 17:26

You have run into several issues with Google Print (now re-named Google Book Search) … - 18:51

What is the distributed architecture of tomorrow going to look like and how difficult is it going to be to build for scale? What specifics can you give us? Is it like building the cellular networks of the 1990s? - 23:33

Given the interest in podcasting and the fact there is so much going out there ‘free’ how does Google plan on developing indices for that material, given there are sites with show notes, others with OPML files and so on? - 27:22

Google is increasingly looking like a global infrastructure player. Are there any enterprise technology spin-offs or offerings to look forward to that you can ourtline to us? - 29:07

We’ve been hearing accounts in Europe that Google has been muscling its SEO partners and agencies, in certain circumstances refusing to deal without considerably more information about customers than would be usual in normal commercial arrangements - like specifics on customer details. That has left some SEOs of the view Google is endeavouring to intelligence gather with a view to cherry picking advertisers and thereby denying them the opportunity to up and cross-sell while Google rakes an extra margin. What is Google’s approach towards SEOs? Do you thrink it is fair to ask for inormation that is usually confidential to the intermediary? - 30:55

Do you see a shift in power balance between traditional MSM, including online and the newer world of blogs and podcasts or are we still too early in the game - beyond the world of technology that is? - 31:55

Do you see that having implications for the advertising industry? - 34:32

Geographically, what are the 2006 hotspots for Google (i.e. where will Google be putting its investment $)? - 35:50

Does government control in China present specific challenges and if so can you describe - in general terms- what those challenges are and how you see Google meeting them, given there is a significant cultural difference in approach to media? - 37:06

In 15 years time what kind of world will my now 2.5 year old son be facing? - 38:42

You don’t have a blog - is that a conscious decision? - 43:27

Are you a Mac or a PC user? - 45:38

Download the interview here (10.7mb mp3).