ReadWriteWeb

For many of us, science fairs may conjure an image of the school gym, full of students showcasing their science projects - their hypotheses, their experiments, their data. But in part due to the financial constraints of both schools and families, these sorts of events are on the decline. The Google Science Fair, however, doesn't require poster boards and it doesn't require travel. It is, in fact, the first ever online global science fair. And any student (age 13 to 18) anywhere - as long as they have a computer, a browser and Internet access - can participate.

The debate about private clouds continue as the traditional heavyweight enterprise software providers make their big and glossy pitches for their vision of a private cloud.

So, it may come from Google, but still, it is refreshing to hear the intellectual tone that a scholar like Vint Cerf provides. Cerf is Google's chief technology evangelist but his reflections give a sound bearing on how private and public clouds do interact.

Using a cloud computing service may sound enticing, but you better consider how that data can be moved around if you want to switch to a different provider.

It's a big problem that now has the attention of Vint Cerf, who is calling for standards to define how customer data gets passed between different cloud service providers.

Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, is one of those legends of the tech world, up there with people like Steve Wozniak. He is one of the co-designers of the TC/IP protocol. He is one of those few who had this idea way back when of hooking computers together to create a network. Today we call that network the Internet.

"By 2010 we will have run out of IP addresses if we don't do something about it," Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and the man commonly referred to as "the father of the Internet," told ReadWriteWeb last month. (Video embedded below.)

With the number of Internet-enabled devices particularly mobile phones soaring, very few IP addresses remain vacant, and with only about 20 per cent of the world connected to the Net, that's a problem. And consumers, if you think this doesn't affect you, think again. That latest gadget you bought - is it IPv6 compatible?

Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google and widely recognized as one of the "Fathers of the Internet" last week said that the issues facing the Internet today are as complex as they were pre-Internet.

Speaking at the SMX Conference in Santa Clara, Cerf discussed his concerns about the current state of the Internet and gave us a glimpse into his hopes for its future.

While some of our European readers may snicker if I were to complain about having to pay $4.10/gallon to fill up my car's gas tank, the fact is that across the world many people are feeling pressure at the pump. There are some who argue that the environmental benefits of high gas prices, which are changing our energy consumption habits for the better, outweigh the economic problems pricey fuel creates. But one unexpected benefit of rising fuel costs might be felt on the web, where high gas prices may help to drive adoption of web apps, says Google vice president Vinton Cerf, according to the AFP.