WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [harp music] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Lakshmi Narayanan] Good evening, everyone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's my pleasant duty this evening to welcome all of you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to this event. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is an event that is jointly conducted by 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 TiE Chennai, NASSCOM, and the Internet Society. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I see many TiE members, governing council members, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 participants, etc. Welcome to all of you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is one of those very important events. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We've been having a few of those recently in TiE. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The last time we were here was to listen to Kanwal Rekhi), 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the original entrepreneur - the founder of the TiE network. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He spent an evening with charter members of TiE. That was in association with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the Madras Management Association. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today we ae happt to collaborate with NASSCOM, the Internet Society. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sivasubramanian from the Internet Society is here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ramaraj is here, the Past President, and he has just come here 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 after successfully completing TiEcon, the annual conference of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 TiE Chennai, in Dedember. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let me welcome all of you, and a special welcome to Dr. Vinton Grey Cerf, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who has been here -- many other people -- I was at a meeting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at the adjoining hotel. There are about three or four people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who immediately recognized him. So I asked them:.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Wow, you know about Dr, Cerf? He is saying: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We've been attending the IEEE event yesterday, we were with him today in another meeting, and i'm sure they are going to come and listen to him again this evening. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So they are all fascinated by your lectures. Thank you for being here. Let me conclude by welcoming once again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I leave it back to (inaudible) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [MC] Thank you Lakshmi. May I now invite Mr. Sivasubramanian, President of Internet Society India, Chennai Chapter. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Sivasubramanian Muthusumy] Good evening. Internet Society India Chennai Chapter is one of the 90 chapters 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the Internet Society, and at the Internet Society, we have chapters, and over 55,000 members. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, the Internet Society is home to organisational, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 i mean, the Internet Society is home to the Internet technical community, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 also to the Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Architecture Board, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and most of the standards for Internet is developed through these bodies, by open process. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the Internet Society works very closely with ICANN and W3C. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And at the Internet Society Chennai chapter, we contribute to the Internet Governance policy making process 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and take part in international forums related to Internet policy and technical development. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have -- from the Internet Society, we have always wanted to have a program with the TIE, for a very long time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it has happened with the visit of Dr. Cerf. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the topic chosen is with the purpose of asking Dr. Cerf to tell us how to build a Google, or a Facebook from India. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And to tell us that we don't need anybody's permission to do that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We don't need licences to do that. That is what the Internet ecosystem is all about. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And also to ask you to take part in the policy process to provide inputs to governments to join the Internet Society, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to make sure that this environment of permissionless innovation is preserved, for us to prosper. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I am enormously grateful to Dr. Cerf, for setting aside this time to take part in this meeting, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and he has been very kind,and we are also thankful to TiE. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Though it is a joint meeting, most of the work has been done by TiE. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As also the sponsorships, everything, literally everything was done by TIE. Thank you very much. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [MC] Thank you, Siva. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is pleasure now to invite Ramaraj, Past President of TiE Chennai, also an advisor to the Internet Society, to introduce Dr. Vint Cerf. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [R. Ramaraj] Vint Cerf is known as one of the Fathers of the Internet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He is currently the Internet evangelist, and rightly so, because not only did he create the Internet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but since then, he has been travelling around the world to ensure there is a benevolent environment 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in which the Internet can grow and flourish. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And so that is really what Vint has been doing all these years, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 44 years now, since the Internet was invented by Vint and a few of his fellow scientists at UCLA. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 At the 44th year, Internet is something that we take for granted. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is ubiquitous, it is there, so much so that some countries are saying 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that access to the Internet should be a fundamental right, and actually have made it so. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our ministry of IT is considering that, in new buildings, as part of the completion certificate, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 along with other utilities of electricity, water, etc. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 access to the Internet is going to be one of the things that'll be mandated in new buildings. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So it's becoming more and more core to what is happening in our lives. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I just thought i'll touch upon a few issues and cross-roads I think we are at. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The first is, there are about 2 billion Internet users, about 140 million or so are from India. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Many of them access this using the mobile. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But there are another 4-5 billion who need to get included. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So one of the initiatives, that Vint did, many years ago, whicj is bearing fruit, is the starting of what is called 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Internationalised Domain Names, or IDNs. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have .IN in India. That is now available, or will be available shortly, in eight local scripts. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is in Hindi, Tamil, Hazdot, Parat, Parat-tum, in Tamil, etc. in eight native local scripts, it's going to be available. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As a starting point to bring people, non-English speaking people onto the net,. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Similarly, it's gone into Arabia, China, Russia in local languages. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's something that VInt started, and it is a starting point for how to get more people onto the Internet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The second big initiative that was started which is now again starting to bear fruit, is IPv6. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 IPv6, Vint is the honourary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, and IPv6 is something that is going to make the Internet of things a reality. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We are starting to see it already in the mobile phones, but we are seeing it in almost everything - cars, trucks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 - and IPv6, those numbers are now available, compared to IPv4, almost limitless, in relative terms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, it is again something where we are going to see a serious impact in the way we think and use the Internet going forward. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A third area that is starting to impact is Internet Governance. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Vint helped start an orgnisation called ICANN 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is a not for profit organisation out of California. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's the -- an organisation that focuses on Internet resources, names and numbers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Names like .com, .org, .in, etc. -- .barrat 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and IP addresses. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's one, or a couple of those resources. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This was started, and I happened -- had the good fortune of being on the board at ICANN when Vint was the chairman. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And there, ICANN was started, keeping the fact that it's a multistakeholder model, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of us can be part of Internet governance in the ICANN model. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's got civil society, it's got technology people, it's got lawyyers - copyright lawyers, trademark lawyers, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's got governments. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So it was multi-stakeholder, light-touch governance. But with the Internet becoming more and more influential 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with events like the Arab Spring, there is a move to see how the Internet governance can be more tightly influenced by the government. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I think part of what we are talking here, of an Open Internet, is how can we all participate in making sure that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this light-touch, multi-stakeholder model carries on. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So that's something, and it so happened that ICANN, and with a few influencers like Vint, spoke to Kapil Sibal, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and some of our Ministry of IT folks, who had a position saying 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is good for the Internet to have government set, globally. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And luckily they changed that, and have now taken the stance, that it should be multi-stakeholder driven, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they said that at the IGF, where they said it should be multi-stakeholder model,. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this is the way inclusion will happen, this is the way innovation will happen, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and that's something that came out, luckily for us, that India has had the foresight to participate in that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think the last one I wanted to touch upon is Internet regulation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Internet regulation is again coming up where people want to stat controlling content and behaviour. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We've had a stark example of two girls who said something on Facebook, and were arrested. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If they had written to the Editor of the TImes of India, instead of going onto Facebook, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 offline media, would the police have arrested them, or would somebody have sued them? NOTE Paragraph 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, the due process of law, for offline is getting accelerated, exaggerated, in the online world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And therefore, how can we bring some sanity - it's a work in progress - 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people don't know how to respond to something that creates this level of impact. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And so how can we all participate in making sure? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, January 18th last year, there was a bill that was going to be passed in the United States 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that would have in some way brought a degree of censorship to the Internet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 More than 10 million rallied around and got their both online, offline support, to say this is rubbish, itshould not happen. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it was actually called "The Dark" --.many websites went dark. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And it has now been stated as Freedom Day for the Internet, so January 18th, just a few days ago, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was celebrated as the Freedom Day for the Internet., 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the government of the United States said we will now rethink that bill, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and therefore that kind of censorship is not happening. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How can we participate, and ICANN, and other bodies, and ISOC, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which Shiva was talking about, are bodies in which we can all participate, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and actually influence, because multi-stakeholder model means Internet users, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to technical standards, to policy, government, all of that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And we can actually participate. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And if you actually go to the ICANN.org site, that's one place where you could participate, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or ISOC.-- Siva is here, you could talk to him. NOTE Paragraph 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Let me come to introducing the speaker, which is really my task, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I thought I would bring it in context of why we are so excited by the presence of Vint, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who not only helped invent this fantastic tool that we use, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but has also worked very hard to evangelise the Internet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and see that there is a safe harbour for us all to use it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Many pages of awards, so I won't go into all of them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'll just highlight a few, Vint. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 1997, President Clinton awarded the US National Medal for Technology. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in 2004, the Alan M. Turing award was given to Vint, which is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Computer Science. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a very unique prize that was given. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 President Bush gave the Presidential Model of Freedom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's equal unto a Bharat Ratna, it's the highest civilian award that can be given, that was given. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was the Japan Prize. Extraordinarily prestigious recognition from Japan. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The National Inventors Hall of Fame have inducted Vint for all the innovation that he has done. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The Stanford Engineering School calls him a hero, in that engineering school. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was Chairman and founder of, helped found ICANN, founding President of ISOC. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On January 16th, President Obama invited Vint to join the board of Directors of the National Science Foundation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a governing body for all science and technology in the United States, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 including engineering and science education. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So these are just a few samples of the kind of awards and recognition that VInt has had. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's one other aspect to Vint that I enjoyed, as on the board, outside of the Internet, he loves fine wine. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And one of the benefits we all had was great wine when Vint was around. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So Vint, thank you for that, and we all look forward to hearing to you, the stage is yours. Vint. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Applause] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Vint Cerf] Well, first of all, I really appreciate an opportunbity to speak with you, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 particularly considering that many of you are part of the entrepreneurial business community, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and if there is any place that Internet can be leveraged, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is in your hands. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I did want to mention a couple of -- Ramaraj, you covered a good deal of material 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I would have covered in my talk, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so I appreciate that. [laughter] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It saves me the trouble, and I will be able to emphasize other things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 With regard to anniversaries, though, I would like to mention a couple of them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The Internet Society was started in 1992, on January 1st, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so it had it's 20th anniversary last year, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we celebrated that in Geneva with a big party. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This year on January 1st, the Internet itself was actually turned on - it was 30 years ago. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's not quite -- I'l come back to you with the 44 number in just a moment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But, on January 1st 1983, we turned the Internet on, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it's never been shut down since that time.