Februrary 8, 2015
Since I created the Internet, I have worked for many companies at Internet-related roles. I am going to share today all of the work at various companies that I have done from 1982 to the present day.
I left DARPA in 1982 to become the Vice President of Digital Information Services at MCI Communication Corporation. In 1983, MCI launched MCI Mail, the world’s first commercial email service. Despite the fact that the graphics were clunky, this was still a huge leap in technology that is often undereappreciated. It was shut down nine months before Google's Gmail was availible. MCI Mail was decommissioned in 2003, most likely due to a fraud scandal that was the largest in American history at the time.
In 1986, Bob Kahn and I cofounded the CNRI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives) and I was its Vice President. At the time, Kahn was the President. In 1991, Kahn and I left CNRI to cofound ISOC, the Internet Society, in 1992. I was President from 1992 to 1995, with Kahn as Vice President. During this time, ISOC worked in conjunction with the Network Startup Resource Center, or NSRC. This was meant to help developing and poor countries get Internet access. The ISOC also started DCWs, Developing Country Workshops, beginning in 1993. In the first one, from August 10-14, 1993, 126 people from 67 developing countries were taught how to connect to the Internet, and it is now done annually. From 1993 to 2001, 1300 people attended DCWs from 96 countries. This was the major accomplishment that ISOC had done before I stepped down in 1995.
At that time, I rejoined MCI (known as Worldcom until 2003) as Senior Vice President from 1994 to 2005. In 2002, MCI was reported for $3.8 billion of fraud. This later jumped to $11 billion in fraud from booking “line costs” and inflating revenues with bogus accounting entries. At the time, this was the largest fraud scandal in American history. Due to this scandal, MCI declared bankruptcy and had to shut down MCI Mail in June 2003. I left MCI in October 2005, two months before Verizon officially bought MCI for $7.6 billion. Since MCI’s collapse, I have been Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google.
Vinton Cerf
Age 73
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google
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