[chapter-delegates] Cerf/Kahn evening

[Lynn St.Amour]

Alejandro,

what a wonderful note.  And I will of course be happy to help in 
anyway I can personally and/or through ISOC.

Warm regards,
Lynn

At 11:49 AM -0500 5/10/05, Alejandro Pisanty wrote:
>Hi,
>
>on behalf of ISOC Mexico I respectfully submit the text that follows. It
>seems reasonable to ask Lynn to help collect these texts and deliver them
>to Vint and Bob, and to the ACM leadership. And I guess more than one
>among us in the chapters is ready to assist in editing that collection,
>and eager to point to it once it is online in the ISOC webpage, from our
>own.
>
>Here goes the text:
>
>A note from ISOC Mexico on the occasion of the ACM Awards for Vinton 
>Cerf and Robert Kahn
>
>
>Alejandro Pisanty
>
>
>Vint, Bob,
>
>may I be so bold as to presume that you'll be reading or hearing this note.
>
>The last few years have given me occasion to see some of the 
>workings of the system you so much contributed to create, and on 
>some brilliant opportunities, to actually watch you closely at work 
>in it and for it. It's been a privilege.
>
>Some years ago I realized that my first contact with what would 
>become the Internet occurred in 1979. At the time I was spending a 
>summer in Bloomington, Indiana, in a workshop on quantum-chemical 
>computational methods. Coming from a punched-card-and-teletype 
>environment, it was quite astounding for me (and for a few other 
>participants) to see that we were using computers in Livermore, and 
>that colleagues from Lafayette were able to bring their data files 
>over the network to process during the workshop. Little did we know 
>then what this whole thing, supported on the ARPANet, would become.
>
>I did get one prediction right at the time; on seeing something 
>called the Texas Instrument Silent 700, a small, 
>thermal-paper-and-no-screen teletype with two bulky rubber pieces to 
>join it to a telephone handset and connect to a computer through 
>phone lines and chirping sounds, and learning that the colleague 
>with it could actually loan one out of her university and take it 
>home, I said "this thing can ruin your family life forever even if 
>you live alone!" Proof of the prediction is that I am writing and 
>sending this note close to midnight, from home where my wife, 
>recovering from an illness, has fallen asleep.
>
>The Internet has done so much for us in my environment - empowered 
>millions of people, let businesses thrive, friendhips grow, expanded 
>opportunities of access to knowledge and human contact all over the 
>world, contribute to a global effort in organizations such as ICANN, 
>ISOC, WGIG; moved young and old from confined, deprived environments 
>to membership in global communities, in Castells's "space of flows," 
>created true citizens of the world.
>
>Yes, also challenged us with spam, cheats, threats, spurred us to 
>improve our security work and our systems understanding, with new 
>forms of transnational domination and new forms to beat it when 
>unfair. And challenged us to make our locally developed language, 
>insights, and experiences to bear globally, by force of reason, of 
>listening and understanding; challenged us to profoundly admit what 
>we don't understand, and learn from others; to manage conflict, 
>differences in outlook - literally of Weltanschauung -  and still to 
>obtain and add value in our interactions.
>
>We are not only talking to you two about the original inventions and 
>contributions that sparked so much of this. It is also to the 
>building of mechanisms, organizations, institutions, of the ability 
>to continously evolve, and your profound sense of stewardship that 
>we make a reasoned but also a deeply heartfelt tribute. The many 
>that made this a collective effort will start being recognized at 
>higher levels thanks to this breakthrough evening.
>
>
>.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
>Director General de Servicios de Computo Academico
>UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
>Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
>Tel. (+52-55) 5622-8541, 5622-8542 Fax 5622-8540
>http://www.dgsca.unam.mx
>*
>---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, www.isoc.org
>  Participa en ICANN, www.icann.org
>.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .