

Vint Cerf, who can fairly be described as one of the godfathers (but not in a Tony Soprano way), has endorsed Barack Obama in the US presidential race, saying that his decision is swayed by Obama's stance on net neutrality - the question of whether content providers should be charged more for different content by the "pipe" providers.

The video is above, but if you feel textual, here's a short extract:

We believe that the Internet should remain an open environment. It's vital to innovation. Companies like Google, and Yahoo, and eBay, and Amazon, and Skype and so on, got their start without having to get permission from any ISP or any broadband provider to offer services. They simply acquired access to the internet, put their services up and then made them available to the general public.

So far, so much the usual explanation of net neutrality. But what does Obama offer?

We think that's the best way for the Internet to evolve and I'm pleased to say that in the upcoming presidential elections, the two candidates have rather different views of this particular matter. Senator Obama in particular sees things the way I do which is that the Net should remain open, fully accessible and providing access on a non-discriminatory basis to the people who want to offer new services on the network.

We had an exclusive interview with Cerf at the start of October: he makes the case there again for the benefits of net neutrality.

There are more scientists and technologists and their endorsements on the AVoteForScience channel on YouTube; safe to say that it's not seeing a huge amount of backing for John McCain and his creationist-backing running mate Sarah Palin - although McCain has been unusual among Republicans in accepting that climate change is real, important and urgent. That though has not been enough for many American scientists and technologists who want a break from the Bush years when science has been overruled.

Obama did win a certain amount of opprobrium for his backing in June to the FISA bill, "a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by the liberal activists who have fueled the financial engines of his presidential campaign" (according to the Washington Post). It doesn't seem to have hurt him too much though - in the leadup to the final presidential debate on Tuesday night, he had a notional lead nationally of 4 points - plus or minus 2.9.