Dear Mr. Ozgit,
I thank you for your kind invitation to attend and to
participate in the Inet-TR97 conference this November.
As you now know, I am unable to break other commitments
to come to the meeting, but I want to congratulate you
and your colleagues on organizing this very important
event. Nothing could be more important or timely than
to examine ways in which Internet can be supported and
applied in your country and others in the region.
As Mr. John Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, has
observed, telecommunications lies at the heart of economic
development. Internet is plainly in everyone's future and
understanding how it fits into the global telecommunications
picture is crucial for every national economy.
It is especially important that interested individuals who
share common regional interests in Internet meet and discuss
what can be done to strengthen the growth of Internet services
in the region. In many cases, multinational backbones may
serve to reduce costs and increase inter-exchange capability
among the nearby economies, while firmly binding all of them
to the increasingly global economy in which the Internet now
rests.
Perhaps even more important, this conference offers an
opportunity for people with ideas to test them with others
of similar persuasion. From such interactions have come many
of the innovations we now enjoy regularly on the Internet.
I hope it will be your experience that this conference ignites
some important new ideas for products, services and Internet
features which the rest of the Internet community will have
occasion to benefit from.
Finally, I hope that your attendees will give some thought
to the formation of Internet Society chapters in their
home locations so as to continue the discussions locally
and to help educate others about the importance and value
of Internet. I would invite anyone with an interest in
starting a chapter to consult the ISOC web pages, www.isoc.org
and to let me know at vcerf@mci.net of their interest.
Best wishes to each of you attending. I hope this conference
and others in the future, will prove to be highly productive
and personally satisfying.
Warmest regards,
Vint Cerf
ISOC Trustee and VP for Chapter
