Robert Kahn

-Individual recipient of World Internet Conference Distinguished Contribution Award 

"We are committed to managing digital information in a structured way, enabling digital objects to become true 'first-class citizens' of the internet and promoting the global deployment of this architecture in the public interest."

Robert Kahn, widely known as the "father of the internet", made this remark in his acceptance speech via video link for the 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Distinguished Contribution Award during the WIC Wuzhen Summit, which took place from Nov 6 to 9 in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province.

He noted that the internet has undergone more than half a century of development, reaching an unprecedented scale of users and exerting far-reaching influence. He said that in such a vast and complex system, it is a great honor to be recognized as an individual.

Kahn reflected on his early involvement in the development of the internet. In the 1960s, he began research into computer communications networks, a field that had yet to attract widespread attention. He led the team that built the first four-node packet network, ARPANET, which became the technical prototype of today's internet. 

In 1972, Kahn successfully organized the first public demonstration of ARPANET at the International Conference on Computer Communications, introducing the world to an efficient, economical and reliable form of network communications.

He went on to describe two other landmark experiments he led, the satellite packet network and the terrestrial wireless packet network. 

Through these efforts, he came to recognize the importance of building an open-architecture network capable of interconnecting any networks regardless of hardware or software constraints. 

In 1973, Kahn and Vinton Cerf jointly developed the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), establishing unified rules for data transmission across different networks and enabling precise routing through the IP addressing system. These early explorations laid the fundamental framework for how the internet operates.

As the internet entered the 1980s, applications such as email and file transfers became increasingly widespread. The emergence of the US National Science Foundation Network, along with other government and commercial networks, propelled the internet toward a global information marketplace. 

Yet Kahn observed that users still relied heavily on keyboard-and-screen interactions. In response, he proposed the intelligent mobile programs in late 1980s, envisioning programs that could proactively perform tasks on behalf of users.

Although security concerns at the time limited the broad adoption of this idea, Kahn and his team distilled it into what became known as Digital Object Architecture. 

Under this approach, digital information is encapsulated as structured entities with unique, persistent identifiers, making them readable and actionable by both humans and machines. As artificial intelligence increasingly participates in extracting and analyzing online information, this architecture is demonstrating its critical value.

The Corporation for National Research Initiatives, founded by Kahn, recently released the open-source DOIP–MCP Connector, a tool that effectively bridges protocol barriers between digital objects and AI systems. 

Kahn highlighted that a number of Chinese institutions have actively adopted the architecture in scientific research and information services, developing a range of localized applications.

At present, global coordination of the Digital Object Architecture is overseen by the DONA Foundation based in Geneva. Kahn revealed that the foundation's board includes two members from China, one of whom serves as vice chair, reflecting China's active participation in internet technology governance and standards development.

Looking ahead, Kahn called for the internet to continue evolving toward greater openness, intelligence and sustainability, with ongoing improvements to information structures and service systems to better empower human society. 

"The future of the internet depends on global collaboration and collective wisdom," he said, "ensuring that technology truly serves people is our shared responsibility and common vision."