THE Grıll
David D.
Clark
This Internet pioneer
wants to help
users have better
experiences online.
What do you do in your
spare time? My wife would say that
what I do in my spare time is work.
I love my work. But I decompress:
I read, I listen to music.
When you’re not working,
do you use the Internet? I have
a presence in some of the social
networking sites, but I confess I don’t
use them a lot. I go online and read
things. The Web is a fascinating place.
Do you have times when
you’re completely unplugged?
There have been t wo times in the
past two years when I was completely
off the Net. It was when my wife and
I went to the arctic, but I still had
technology with me. I still had my
computers, because I was taking
digital photographs.
Photos Courtesy of the AmeriCAn ACAdemy of Arts And sCienCes
WHEN the American Academy of Arts and Sciences decided to explore the complex issues of security and privacy in cyberspace for its academic journal Daedalus, it tapped Internet pioneer David D. Clark to serve as guest editor. Clark’s credentials certainly made him a worthy selection.
He has been involved in the development of the Internet since the 1970s and served as chief
protocol architect and chair of the Internet Activities Board from 1981 to 1989. Today he’s a
senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
His research focuses on redefining the Internet’s architectural underpinnings. Clark,
who in September received the Oxford Internet Institute Lifetime Achievement Award for
his work, talks here about the Internet, its potential and problems, and its future.
