ne is dapper, convivial, pragmatic--and from California. The other is reserved, deep in piles of information, deeper still in concepts--and from New York City. Yet through four decades the careers of Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn intertwine "like a historic court dance as we cycle through a pas de deux," to quote Cerf. And the supreme product of their supremely productive collaboration was the Internet.
Both men now live in metropolitan Washington, D.C. Cerf at MCI Communications Corp. is senior vice president in charge of the phone company's Internet initiatives. Kahn leads the not-for-profit Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), an architect of the upcoming National Information Infrastructure.
Their story concerns basic contributions in networking, but the theme is their common ability "to sacrifice personal gain for project completion," noted Daniel Lynch, their long-time friend and founder of the Interop trade show.
The Internet was not a garage invention but was developed by hundreds of enthusiastic contributors, from whose ranks Kahn and Cerf emerged in the 1970s as prime movers. Out of their technical choices grew the freewheeling culture of the digital sprawl called the Net. Why was the solution they hammered out more than a transitory research sensation? The answer extends over 25 years.
(c) Copyright 1996, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.