DiploFoundation's IGCBP participants meet Vint Cerf

Athens, Greece – November, 2006

 

“The Internet is a mirror of society,” Google’s vice-president Vinton Cerf explained during an hour-long meeting with participants and tutors of DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Buliding Programme (IGCBP06).

“If you look at the mirror and you don’t like what you see, you don’t fix the mirror; you try to fix yourself,” Dr Cerf said in an analogy to the Internet. The team had the opportunity to discuss some Internet Governance aspects, including net neutrality, security, openness and access. Also present for the meeting was Marc Furrer, president of the Swiss Federal Communications Commission.

Widely known as a “Father of the Internet,” Dr Cerf is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for Google, and is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet.

Prior to their meeting, they attended the workshop entitled “ICT to achieve MDGs: Issues and Challenges for Small Islands States and Developing Economies”. The workshop formed part of the Internet Government Forum discussions on access which took place in Athens, Greece.

DiploFoundation’s IGCBP aims to assist individuals involved in Internet Governance issues from countries with limited financial and human resources to develop the skills and knowledge required to participate meaningfully in the global debate on IG. Over the past two years, a total of 119 participants with different multistakeholder backgrounds from over 40 developing countries have taken part in the programme.

The panel was chaired by Rajnesh D. Singh from the Pacific Island Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC) and moderated by Jovan Kurbalija, director of DiploFoundation, and included Vinton Cerf, who opened the discussion with a brief overview of the Millenium Development Goals.

Also on the panel, among others, were Gisa Fuatai Purcell, secretary of Samoa ICT Committee, and Mike Johnstone, Chief Executive Officer for SamoaTel.

Highlights from the meeting with Vint Cerf were recorded and can be viewed here.