Topic A: Internet Governance

When Vint Cerf speaks, smart people listen, which is why Google invited the former DARPA program manager and father of the Internet (and now the company's VP and Chief Internet Evangelist) to address the smart set assembled at Atmosphere 2011, Google's two-day cloud computing event in Mountain View, Calif.

Jolie O'Dell over at Venture Beat has a nice synopsis of Cerf's talk, which included this rebuke of Homeland Security for overzealously going after copyright violators:

"Even our own government is beginning to go overboard in the protection of copyright...

The open ability to develop new applications and try them out has been vital to the Internet's growth and to the space in which we currently operate. It has interesting ways of enhancing both sides of the equation."

According to O'Dell, Cert told the audience, "Remember, governance is a big word that includes human rights, freedom of speech, economic transactions on a worldwide basis -- it touches everything. It's everywhere, and that's why Internet governance is topic A in many corners."