<h1>Cerf's up: economic future tied to growth of ‘internet of things’</h1>
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<a href="http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/26920-vint-cerf-in-dublin/">http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/26920-vint-cerf-in-dublin/</a></p><p class="article-date">26.04.2012
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<p class="article-summary">
One of the internet’s founding fathers Vint Cerf, who co-invented
TCP/IP technology – the platform upon which the internet runs – said
that by the end of the decade every person and machine on the planet
could conceivably be internet-connected. This means more economic
opportunities will arise for IT-skilled economies, as the cost of
internet-enabling anything falls.
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<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf" title="Vint Cerf">Cerf</a>,
vice-president and chief internet evangelist at Google, who was in
Dublin today to address Google staff, said he was impressed at how a
country like Ireland made the right policy decisions over a number of
decades to develop its ICT economy.</p><p>“I'm very impressed at how
over the last few decades Ireland concentrated its belief in ICT in
order to build up a new kind of business base," said Cerf, who was
instrumental in creating the internet as we know it by helping develop
TCP/IP while a programme manager at DARPA.</p><p>“Your policies encouraged outside investment. Long-term planning showed the ability to develop markets not strictly domestic."</p><p>Cerf
said he recalled the early days of the international services
industries in Ireland when companies would actually mail physical credit
card receipts.</p><p>“But Ireland showed the ability to go after the bigger jobs, built up its skills base and attracted international businesses.</p><p>“You came to the table with a lot of thoughtful effort to prepare your country for the IT space."</p>
<h3>Light at the end of the tunnel</h3><p>Cerf
acknowledged that Ireland suffered the same disease as the US - the
property bubble and subsequent economic collapse. "In the US, the light
at the end of the tunnel hasn't produced the jobs we hoped. It's been a
jobless recovery so far. That is going to change and I have a feeling of
optimism about the perverse effect that technology has, that it is not
just static.</p><p>“The internet is as good an example as anything that has evolved over time and is continuously rolling out new kinds of apps.</p><p>“Every time you do something with software, you have to break it.</p>
<p>“In that sense, the more IT activity you can undertake gives you the opportunity to be helpful to other people."</p><p>Cerf expressed his belief that there is a long-term growth prospect for the IT industry.</p><p>
“The
key is to grow your IT skills base. There are going to be new
possibilities and new problems to solve, it's not going to stop.</p><p>“I'm
optimistic about that segment of IT activity - in the UK, the IT
economy is over 7pc of their economy - that, frankly, surprised me. And
that growth is continuing.</p><p>“Every year, there is a 15pc growth in
the number of people and machines and by the end of the decade everyone
on the planet could be on the internet.</p><p>“This is going to expand.
Look at the apps economy - 'hey, there's an app for that' - and it's
going to go beyond mobile, every machine can be connected to the
internet. Ally that with cloud, it's a confluence of the two.</p><p>“This
is making it possible for more people than ever to write apps and this
is going to expand to other machines - you've heard of the internet of
things.</p><p>“The cost of internet-enabling anything is dropping
dramatically. It costs 50 cents to internet-enable a light bulb. This
isn't a crazy idea - once you put something on the internet you make it
controllable. The more devices connected to the internet, the more
opportunities.</p><p>“That means there's a raft of potential waiting to penetrate the IT space."</p><h3>Check out our video interview with Google's Vint Cerf here:</h3>