Internet pioneer Vinton G. Cerf is leaving MCI for Google where his new title will be Chief Interent Evangelist. The New York Times has an article about Dr. Cerf's new position but doesn't really explain what his job entails.
But Dr. Cerf, whose first official day at Google is Oct. 3, said it was too early to know exactly what he will be working on.
"I haven't spent enough time at Google to know if any of the ideas I have are old hat or already in the pipeline," he said.
And in spite of the widespread use of the Internet around the world, Dr. Cerf said, a measure of evangelism is still in order.
"The Internet has a billion users, and we have 5.6 billion to go," Dr. Cerf said. "Each will come to the Internet in different ways, like wirelessly, and Google needs to be receptive and adaptive to those different circumstances."
The title is cool even if the details about the job are somewhat vague. Church of the Customer has a list of some similar job titles that contain the word "evangelist."
