Evangelising the internet

Of all the things to expect when walking into search giant Google's London office, a three-piece suit is not high on the agenda. But if your job title is Chief Internet Evangelist, perhaps you should dress up a little. The gentleman sitting across the table in the smart tailoring, with a slight stoop and a neatly-trimmed grey beard, is Vint Cerf - one of a small group of people widely regarded as the inventors of the internet. Birth of the network "Evangelist" as a title was Google's idea, not his. "I wanted Archduke, but they said no," Mr Cerf says. But the infectious enthuasiasm bubbling off him certainly justifies the title on the business card. If Google were looking for a card-carrying example of its corporate motto, "Don't be evil" - a motto which is increasingly coming under close scrutiny now that Google is a $100bn public company - it could hardly do better. After all, Mr Cerf was was one of two people responsible in the 1970s for coming up with the language by which internet traffic communicates. The decision to throw the details of TCP/IP, as it is known, open to the world is what has allowed the network to flourish and grow into what we know as the internet today. More...

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