Vint Cerf is a smart man. He also knows a lot about the Internet, which isn’t surprising considering he helped create it. So when he tells the Internet Society of Australia that he is “envious” of the Government’s push for a national broadband network, it’s probably a voice worth paying attention to.
Stuart Corner over at ITWire today quoted Cerf as telling the ISOC-AU meeting:
“I am so envious that you have a government that is willing to make the long term infrastructure investment of this magnitude and of this type [in the NBN] . I will be pushing very hard for similar activities in the US but quite frankly you guys are way ahead of us.”
Cerf also told Mitchell Bingemann at the Australian that he couldn’t predict the economic benefits of an infrastructure rollout like the NBN, but knew that there would definitely be some, claiming that “for these kinds of infrastructure like phenomenon it’s very hard to predict what the result will be”.
But he did also criticise the government’s proposed internet filter, claiming that it isn’t a technically feasible move.
For any geek unsure of their position on the NBN, this is a pretty high profile endorsement.
[ITWire and The Australian]
Image: Wikimedia Commons
