For Immediate Release
Date:   June 15, 2004

Oak Ridge, the Internet, and Weather Predictions

Oak Ridge, TN. What is the best predictor for bad weather in Washington, D.C.? Schedule a community lecture in Oak Ridge with Internet pioneers Dr. Vinton Cerf and Dr. Robert Kahn. Barring hurricanes or the blizzards, which caused the event to be scrubbed in September ’03 and January ‘04, the lecture “What Happens After You Invent the Internet?” will be held on Tuesday, June 29th, at 7:30 p.m. at American Museum of Energy in Oak Ridge. Cerf and Kahn are the two men who invented TCP/IP, the underlying basis for the Internet.

Cerf is Sr. Vice President for Technology Strategy for MCI and distinguished visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he is working on an interplanetary internet. Kahn is Chairman, CEO, and President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), where he works on knowbots, Digital Object Architecture, and the Handle System® for persistent identification of Internet information, to name a few.

What makes these two very busy men willing to risk bringing further weather wrath down on our nation’s capitol? Kahn humorously noted that the two are “just testing a new found capability we didn’t know we had.”

According to Dr. Cerf, who is currently working on the interplanetary internet, attendees at the lecture can expect to learn about “the effects of the evolution and continuing growth of Internet use around the world. It is an enabling force and the new ideas it has allowed to germinate and flourish have been, in many cases, quite unpredictable."

IIa president Bonnie Carroll, who has known the two for many years, says these are “knowledgeable, entertaining, and stimulating” speakers who are certain to create “an evening to remember.”