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Vint Cerf, an Internet pioneer who is recognized as one of the "fathers of the Internet," held a speech at RIT on Friday, October 16, 2015 on the topic of "Digital Vellum: Preserving Digital Content for the Ages." Vint Cerf, who is a vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, visited RIT as part of Golisano College Dean's Lecture Series and his speech was streamed live by Professor Ed Holden at RIT Croatia campuses. His presentation was very impressive, especially to our IT students who were grateful to have had the opportunity to hear from such an important figure from the realm of the Internet.

"I was not sure what to expect when I heard about the livestream presentation Professor Holden was organizing. 'Father of the Internet?' What can you expect from such a person? Well, let me tell you. Friday, October 16 marks the point of my life where a presentation left me captivated. I was so interested in what Mr. Cerf was saying about preserving old data, making comparisons with real world libraries and how modern technology affects all this, and it left me genuinely pondering about the future of data preservations. We may think it is safely kept in the vast endless space of the Cloud, but what if it becomes corrupt? What if there are no more devices to read those files? As Mr. Cerf continued to discuss how today's technologies make up a large part of our lives, this made me wonder about the dangers of relying too much on technology. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from an IT student, but the stream was very enjoyable and informative. Vint Cerf also shared his experiences from the past and more importantly, his views of the future. The world is going to change substantially in the next 10 to 20 years. Modern technologies have a large and growing impact on our lives, and it is going to become even bigger. It is up to us to decide whether the technology will adapt to our needs, or do we have to adapt to the technology," says Frano Čaveliš, a senior student in the IT program, Dubrovnik Campus.