
Vint Cerf appointed to National Science Board by President Obama - ohjeez
http://www.cccblog.org/2013/01/20/vint-cerf-appointed-to-national-science-board-by-president-obama/
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natural219
I had the pleasure of meeting Vint Cerf last august when he visited University
of Nebraska to talk about the history of the Internet and his involvement (him
and Bob Kahn wrote the whitepaper on TCP), internet policy / issues, problems
with network security, and challenges with modern network engineering. He
discussed in length how he would re-design TCP in the context of inter-
planetary networking -- it was an incredibly fascinating talk.

I have met very few people who are as informed, passionate, and enjoyable to
listen to as Dr. Cerf. His depth of knowledge of software policy issues is
astounding, from international networking standards / last August's ITU
meetings to the future issues of bit rot and data standardization. Overall,
nice move by the Obama administration.

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robertelder
For those who are interested, here is a TED talk that vint gave about inter-
planetary internet.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTmYm3gMYOQ>

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michaelkscott
Watched the video but I honestly can't tell if he's trolling or not ;)

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da02
I don't think he is trolling. The idea may be related to how Licklider wanted
an intergalactic network:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=1969+the+intergalactic+netwo...](https://www.google.com/search?q=1969+the+intergalactic+network)

Licklider knew engineers do what they are told and nothing else. So: give them
a really big project or else they won't implement beyond the specifications.
It seemed to worked since the Internet has been scalable. Alan Kay, every
year, talks about Licklider's intergalactic network in his history of
computing talk: <http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alan+kay>

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mscarborough
Some context: this is the Science Board right now:
<http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/>

Anyone know how the Science Board actually works? Adding Vint Cerf to a
technology panel could be great, but what is the expected result for this?

~~~
naturalethic
<http://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp>

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pekk
What does this specifically have to do with Vint Cerf or the effect of
appointing him?

Do you have any specific insight into the relevant organizations, or are you
just beating anti-government drums regardless of context?

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illuminate
I would expect no less from the Austrian School.

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jacquesm
[http://googleblog.blogspot.nl/2005/11/vint-cerf-speaks-
out-o...](http://googleblog.blogspot.nl/2005/11/vint-cerf-speaks-out-on-net-
neutrality.html)

~~~
joelhaus
More recently, he spoke at CES about the lack of ISP competition
([http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/vint-cerf-
interne...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/vint-cerf-internet-
competition-has-evaporated-since-dial-up/)). Hopefully this appointment will
give him a chance to put internet infrastructure issues back on the table.

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ryguytilidie
Now if only we could have someone who actually understands science and
technology on the House or the Senate science and technology committees...

~~~
dllthomas
This would be a lot more likely if the House and Senate science and technology
committees were seen as desirable appointments. This is not presently the case
for a host of reasons.

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cremnob
Will he still be getting a Google paycheck?

~~~
mjn
These positions aren't salaried, so I would guess he'd retain his current job.
They do get paid a modest amount on days where they're engaged in NSF
business, but at a $524 per-day rate [1] and only about six meetings a year, I
doubt he's going to be living on that.

[1] Found here: [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-PLUMBOOK-2004/pdf/GPO-
PLUMB...](http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-PLUMBOOK-2004/pdf/GPO-
PLUMBOOK-2004-8-61.pdf)

