An Evening With Vint Cerf

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending a talk in London by Dr Vinton Cerf. Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet".  Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet along with his colleague, Robert E. Kahn. As a Vice President of Google, he contributes to global policy development and the continued spread of the internet. The lecture was at Stationers' Hall in London and hosted by three city of London Livery companies including the Stationer's Company.

The hall was packed to capacity. Vint Cerf is an excellent speaker, injecting his talk with personal anecdotes and humour. He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a digital Dark Age. "Even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is” His concerns about archiving our digital age are many and he is spending much time looking into the problem and the possible solutions. He outlined many of the issues whilst introducing those people and institutions who are also trying to address the problem of archiving the internet.

When pontificating about the current best way to preserve information for the future, he said "best to print it on some good quality paper and store it in good conditions" (I've paraphrased the remark) - an interesting comment in this day and age.

The lecture was excellent and left the audience all wondering for the future....
https://stationers.org/

Readers may also be interested to read the article I wrote previously about a paper mill in Finland that has been converted to a data farm by Google!

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/from-paper-to-data.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.09.2016

Will we be able to see our digital present in the future?

Vice president of Google, Vint Cerf has stated that he is concerned that today's digital files, may not be retrievable in the future. His comments were made at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a digital Dark Age. "Even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is”

You can read the article and hear the BBC interview here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31450389

It goes without saying that we shouldn't overlook the value of print and paper which has stood the test of time for hundreds of years, ensuring that we can pass on history and knowledge published at the time it actually occurred. Certainly worth remembering that when a client says what an "important project it is" - that it's a great time to get them to commit to print - even if it's done as a pdf/web/usb etc. as well ...and get them to make their mark in history!

You may also remember I wrote previously about a paper mill that has been converted to a data farm by Google in Finland:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/from-paper-to-data.html

 

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.02.2015