Gourley
Vint Cerf of Google and Bob Gourley of CTOvision.com on CIO Talk Radio
On Wednesday 28 Jan 2009 at 10am Eastern I’ll be on CIO Talk Radio with one of the stars of the global technology community, Vint Cerf.
The topic we will be discussing is the next technology revolution in the US and how it will start. Vint is fantastically qualified to discuss this topic, and I’m honored to be sharing a microphone with him and look forward to learning from the interaction. Every time I get the pleasure of interacting with Vint it ends up influencing me. I hope to capture some of our interaction for future blog posts here at ctovision.com
Vint’s bio is incredible and I learn something every time I read it. I’ve pasted it below.
But first more on CIO Talk Radio. CIO Talk Radio is an Internet radio talk show, broadcasted live every Wednesday at 9:00 AM Central/ 10:00 AM Eastern, about how technology has changed and is changing the way we live our lives as well as do business. Guests are business leaders, subject matter experts, and thought leader who are responsible for shaping the way we use technology. Visit the site at: http://ciotalkradio.com and click on LIVE BROADCAST to listen. A popup window will open and if you have Windows Media Player installed, in 10 – 15 seconds, you will listen to the live radio. In case of issues you may also open broadcasting station websites. Call 866.472.5790 to ask questions during the live broadcast.
Now for that incredibly interesting bio:
Vint Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google
Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services from Google. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.
Cerf is the former senior vice president of Technology Strategy for MCI. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology.
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. In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 (sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science”) for their work on the Internet protocols. In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. In April 2008, Cerf and Kahn received the prestigious Japan Prize.
Prior to rejoining MCI in 1994, Cerf was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). As vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982-1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.
During his tenure from 1976-1982 with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related packet data and security technologies.
Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007. Cerf also served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board. In addition, Cerf is honorary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, dedicated to raising awareness and speeding introduction of the new Internet protocol. Cerf served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and serves on several national, state and industry committees focused on cyber-security. Cerf sits on the Board of Directors for the Endowment for Excellence in Education, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Advisory Committee and the Board of the Avanex Corporation. He also serves as 1st Vice President and Treasurer of the National Science & Technology Medals Foundation. Cerf is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, the Annenberg Center for Communications at USC and the National Academy of Engineering.
Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet. These include the Marconi Fellowship, Charles Stark Draper award of the National Academy of Engineering, the Prince of Asturias award for science and technology, the National Medal of Science from Tunisia, the St. Cyril and St. Methodius Order (Grand Cross) of Bulgaria, the Alexander Graham Bell Award presented by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, the NEC Computer and Communications Prize, the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunications Union, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, the ACM Software and Systems Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Computer and Communications Industries Association Industry Legend Award, installation in the Inventors Hall of Fame, the Yuri Rubinsky Web Award, the Kilby Award, the Rotary Club International Paul P. Harris Medal, the Joseph Priestley Award from Dickinson College, the Yankee Group/Interop/Network World Lifetime Achievement Award, the George R. Stibitz Award, the Werner Wolter Award, the Andrew Saks Engineering Award, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the Computerworld/Smithsonian Leadership Award, the J.D. Edwards Leadership Award for Collaboration, World Institute on Disability Annual award and the Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend medal. Cerf was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006.
Three Events of Federal CTO Interest: Will You Be At These?
FYI, in case your schedule will allow us to connect in person I wanted
to update you on a few events I plan on being at over the next few
weeks.
The Advanced Technical Intelligence Association TECHINT conference will
be held 9-11 Dec 2008. This conference focuses on the technical
dimensions of intelligence, and has a theme of "integrated
performance." The theme refers to the need to integrate capabilities
from all the agencies engaged in national security to better perform in
meeting our national security challenges. On 9 Dec I'll be speaking
at a panel on the real and growing threat in cyber space. There will
be no blogging or tweeting from the conference. But if you are going
to be there please drop me a note and lets connect in person there.
For info see http://masint.org
The AFCEA Solutions conference on Cyberspace will be held 10-11 Dec
2008 at the Ronald Reagan Center in DC. This conference will be
focusing on the challenges and solutions of cyberspace related to
national security. Speakers include Secretary of Homeland Security the
Honorable Michael Chertoff, The Deputy Secretary of Defense the
Honorable Gordon England, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks
and Information Integration the Honorable John Grimes, Ms. Melissa
Hathaway, senior adviser and cyber coordination executive for the
Director of National Intelligence, LTG Keith Alexander, Director of the
National Security Agency, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Information and Identity Assurance Mr. Bob Lentz and Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Information Management Mr. David Wennergren.
I'll be speaking on a panel on Wednesday at 1530 on formulating a
common response.
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This unclas conference follows a model that AFCEA has been using for
several similar events. They are actively seeking ways to enhance the
value of these conferences by leveraging more Web2.0 capabilities
before, during and after the formal presentations. Blogging and
tweeting from the conference is encouraged. You can visit the site at: www.afceasolutions.org/group
For the event schedule and program details can be found online here: www.afceasolutions.org
The US Army Intelligence Warfighting Summit will be held 15-17 Dec
2008. This one will also be a conference where blogging and use of
twitter is not appropriate due to the sensitivity of info discussed.
However, I would appreciate knowing if you will be going so we can
connect there in person. Speakers will include the most senior Army
intelligence leadership, plus Vice Admiral Bob Murrett from NGA, LTG
Alexander from NSA, and Scott McNealy from Sun Microsystems. For more
on the event see: http://www.ncsi.com/iws08/index.shtml
So, if you are going to any of these please let me know.
And please follow me on Twitter so I can send you a few bursts from the AFCEA conference. I'm at http://www.twitter.com/bobgourley
Cheers.
Collaborate and Deliver With More Cowbell
Participants in this week's Enterprise 2.0 conference, hosted by the ODNI's ICES group and the CIA's WIRe team, were treated to a shared experience that is hard to capture in a blog post. So I won't try. But I will say this, we all had some great collaboration and coordination lessons and context, and we were able to participate in creating that ourselves because the conference organizers established a great ambiance and gave us access to wiki's, blogs, twitters and WiFI that knitted that all together. I really appreciated being there.
One lesson I'd like to note now was underscored by Fred Hassani. Fred found a great way to make us all think about the variety of collaboration tools at our disposal. In a musical analogy he underscored how hard it can be to make music with instruments that don't traditionally play well together. But in a sign that the spirit of the community is strong, we all saw how a cowbell can make really really great music if you put your heart into it. And we the community of professionals can make use of any tools we are provided to collaborate, even if they are not our favorites. We will always make due and will always overcome. One way we will overcome is through mashups. Just like in music you can mashup piano's and cowbells, in IT you can mashup imagery data and SIGINT data and analytical data etc.
Which brings us to a great video that underscores this point– not from thte WIReICES conference, but from a group of spirited collaborators from SNL who many of us in the community look up to.
So please check this out and as you do please think of the IT tools in your enterprise. I guess the point made for CTOs is that we need an enterprise that allows mashups of all tools and all data. You never know when the maestro will call for more cowbell.
The National Security Implications of Free 3D in a Browser
Jeffrey Carr sent a short broadcast via Twitter the other day: ”
New post on 3D imaging and Virtual Earth – mind blowing video http://bit.ly/3SxtdA ”
Jeffrey was blogging about a capability shown in the short clip below:
As you watch that, keep in mind that what you are seeing is a capability that can run on any PC that can run Internet Explorer (which is just about all of them).
The clip shows a capability that Microsoft’s Caligari toolset “TrueSpace” has to build high resolution 3D models then upload them into Virtual Earth.
Currently national security planners, as well as others with mission needs for geospatial information, have many choices for solutions. But most good solutions require loading specialized software on the workstation. This includes, of course, Google Earth. Google also provides 3D creation capabilities with Sketch-Up. And that is a powerful combination. But the need to load programs on workstations and move data to workstations complicates enterprise IT solutions. Additionally, Google Earth is reportedly not accurate in elevation measurements. Now the new capability shown in the YouTube clip indicates a solution that can give highly accurate 3D models to planners everywhere, and it can do that without having to instal large stand alone apps on workstations and without having to move large datasets to the workstation.
A use case: Imagine a USMC team preparing for an evacuation of a group of citizens. They shift into their Rapid Response Planning Process (R2P2) and move out. Although this process ensures all available information is used and can accomodate information from external sources, the urgency of the mission means it will proceed no matter what. No one involved is going to waste time trying to download new software programs or test applications or risk breaking systems that are working well. New data is fine, but new software is not needed. This 3D model that runs in a browser could be of tremendous use at times like this. If the data is there, models can be presented to the planning team and they can visually walk through buildings before their mission. The models can be provided from locations far away or from local data if available. And they can be presented on any computer with a browser.
That is just one use case. Many more can be brainstormed by planners, and I’d recommend this dialog get underway soon. But there is actually another meta-point to make. Consider the fact that this dialog can start much earlier in the process because of new web2.0 capabilities. Thanks to Jeffrey’s micro-blogging on Twitter and the Google YouTube posting on his Blog, the national security community has some early warning on things we should be thinking through.
My recommendation: If you haven’t done so already… sign up for Twitter. If you’d like to see some good feeds to follow start here.
CIA IT Leaders Are World Class IT Leaders (continued)
CIO magazine continues its reporting on the IT enterprise at CIA and the CIA's CIO (Al Tarasiuk). I have little more to add: My comments from before still stand: Al is a world class leader and this follow on report just underscores that. I imagine Al is similar to other great CIOs from industry (folks like HP CIO Randy Mott, for example) and my old boss Mike Pflueger of DIA. These leaders must wrestle with far more than technology (they can hand of the easy technology stuff to CTOs, right?). In story after story of the great CIOs I note that they spend a great deal of time on culture, policy, process and human factors.
For continuity I wanted to provide the link to the rest of the story. It is here: http://www.cio.com/article/print/441688
Bob
Microsoft Surface uses Jet to accelerate demand
This is the third of three blog posts on technologies encountered during my visit to Redmond. This one is on Microsoft Surface.
(First a note: although this is about Surface, Microsoft also announced another hot capability called Sphere. For more on that see the blog of the CTO of Microsoft’s Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments- Lewis Shepherd)
Microsoft Surface is something you may have heard about in the press. For
those of us who experimented with technologies like the “Touch Table”
from Applied Minds we already have familiarity with the basic concepts.
You interact with data using your hands. But there is something dramatically different with the Microsoft Surface.
The biggest thing is that it is designed from the ground up to work with the rest of the technology stack.
You need smart programmers and integrators still, but it is easy
for technologists to work with this system so it will very likely
proliferate.
Many software packages already exist for it, and more are being written all the time.
It will be used in the National Security space really soon.
It is just a matter of time before it is. And its cost will ensure that it is widely used.
A Google Knol on Disruptive Technology
Google just opened up their Knol capability to all Internet users. The Google concept for a Knol is that it is an authoritative article about a specific topic. It is a unit of knowledge. People can write what they want, but the idea is that they should put their name on it so there is some way to measure credibility. Others can contribute to the knol in measured ways. For example, a setting can be selected so that anyone can edit the entry, or anyone can suggest entries, or no one can suggest changes.
From the Google Blog entry:
The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people’s heads:
millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit
from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute
their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone.The
key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author
(or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s
their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be
multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.
Sounds cool, so I thought I’d give it a try. The first and most important step was trying to think of a subject to write about. I decided to take the easy way out and self-plagerize myself. I copied my list of disruptive technology and created a knol based on it.
I found the knol page was very easy to configure. Within about a minute I had my account active and copied in a bio so anyone interested could read about who I assert I am. I copied in my info on disruptive IT and hit publish and my knol was up. You can check it out here: Disruptive IT knol.
So far, I have to admit, I am not impressed. How could this be of more value than the list I already maintain?
But I’ll keep an open mind for a little while. My goal is to keep that list up to date with new information that will be of actionalble use to the enterprise Chief Technology Officer (CTO). If the knol concept enables a wider swath of people to read and contribute to that list, then it may be a useful concept. If, however, it generates no new information for me or my readers, then it will probably be easier for me just to maintain the list on my blog. Stay tuned and I’ll post more info on this topic after I see results.
CTOvision Blog 