Q&A: Sun's Radia Perlman speaks out on being stuck with IP, new life for spanning tree and her answer to data security: the ephemerizer

Some people refer to Sun Labs distinguished engineer Radia Perlman as the Mother of the Internet and the creator of the spanning tree algorithm used by bridges and switches. Others know her as the author of network textbooks such as Interconnections. Network World even singled her out in March as one of 20 people who changed the industry over the past 20 years. But when I met with her recently at a security event in Boston I wanted to know this: What have you done for us lately?

One week I get to see Tim Berners-Lee, the Father of the Web, and the next week I get to meet with the Mother of the Internet. What more could a networking editor ask for?

Mother of the Internet. That’s kind of a strange marketing sound bite. I cringe when people emphasize my gender, because it's really a very small part of my life, especially my professional life. Recently a recruiter for a company sent me e-mail saying "We are particularly interested in you as a female thought leader." I didn't reply, because I wasn't interested in a job, but I fantasized replying: "Thank you for your interest. Although my credentials as a thought leader are impeccable, I must warn you that I am not that qualified as a female. I can't walk in heels, I have no clothing sense, and I'm not particularly decorative. What aspects of being female are important for this position?"

What exactly does a distinguished engineer do?

The job is not that well defined so I get to kind of do whatever I want. I enjoy talking to various groups in and out of Sun to find out what they're doing and often it intrigues me with some problem that needs to be solved. Or I meet two groups that ought to know each other and I introduce them. At Sun Labs it's nice if we do things that make the company money but it's also nice if we change the world. Though if all I did was change the world, then I assume that would be a bad thing.

What's your take on the state of networking and security research these days?

The taste of whoever is in the funding agencies tends to cause everyone to look at the same stuff at the same time. Often technologies get hot then go away. There was active networking for a while, which always mystified me and has now died. In security the money is behind digital rights management, which I think ultimately is a bad thing -- not that we need to preserve the right to pirate music, but because the solutions are things that don’t solve the real problems in terms of security. The few dishonest people will always manage to steal things. But most people are basically honest, and are willing to pay if you make it convenient. If there's a trust relationship there most people will wind up buying things. I hate to see so much emphasis on digital rights management.