Well connected. (People).

From its earliest days, UCLA professor leonard kleinrock saw where the internet was headed. Now he's charting a path for its next phase of growth.

IN October 1969, engineering professor Leonard Kleinrock headed a team of UCLA researchers that sent the first message over what would become the Internet to colleagues at Stanford Research institute in Palo Alto. The project, funded by the Defense Department's Advanced Research Project Agency, was intended to let universities share their massive computers. Yet months before the experiment took place, Kleinrock could already see how important the new network would be. In a July 3, 1969 university press release, he said: "Computer networks are still in their infancy. But as they grow up and become more sophisticated, we will probably see the spread of 'computer utilities,' which, like present electric and telephone utilities, will service individual homes and offices across the country." These days, Kleinrock is still teaching. at UCLA and chairing a start-up company, Nomadix Inc., that's attempting to further his vision of a ubiquitous Internet.

Question: Are you happy with the current state of the Internet?

Answer: Yes and no. It is ubiquitous, always on, and accessible. But it is not possible for anybody to plug in any device at any time. There is a need for nomadic computing and invisible connectivity, which is where I'm spending my time now. Nomadic computing allows you to take a device that is Internet-enabled and appear anywhere with it.

Q: What's been your take on the coming and going of the Internet bubble?

A: People thought you could just come up with a brilliant idea and get lots of VC money, which was available, launch a company and go IPO and provide some service to people like selling dog food on the 'Net. Everybody got caught up in it. The virtual corporation was winning out. People forgot you still have to deliver goods. Now the shakeout has occurred and the pendulum has swung too far. Good ideas are not being funded.

Q: Were you ever tempted to use your knowledge to get rich?

A: In the early days of the Internet, we were developing an exciting system we felt would be important for the world. And it was done by a bunch of people who had no interest in exploiting it. The Internet was based on sharing ideas, services and capabilities. And that was the case up until the 1990s, when companies starting stepping in and trying to exploit the Internet. I was never personally interested in creating a company that would exploit it.

Q: But you did form a company, Nomadix, in 1998.

A: When we incorporated, it was the height of the dot-coms. But it wasn't done to exploit the marketplace. I did it to get the technology out there. We helped launch the nomadic computing field and now there are many companies doing this kind of thing.

Q: At what point did you realize what you were working on would go well beyond the research labs?

A: I first realized (the pervasiveness) in 1972, when e-mail was introduced. As soon as it came in, "Whoosh!" It took off with the traffic and still dominates the traffic. And I said, "This is not about computers talking to each other, it's about people talking to each other." That's remarkable and has been the case ever since.

Q: What was your first taste of e-mail's power?

A: We leased a line to this conference in England in 1973, so the participants would have access to the Internet. I had to leave a day early, and when I got home I realized I had left my electronic razor. I thought, "It's 3 a.m. in England. Who would likely be on the Internet right now?" And I thought of Larry Roberts (the ARPA project leader). At that time there was a piece of software that would go to every host attached to the network and look at the list of who's logged on. So I typed "Where Roberts?" and a few minutes later it showed he was logged on. So I connected with him and explained my problem. The next day, I got my razor back, because Danny Cohen (a USC researcher) who lives in L.A., had come .back from the conference.

Q: How did the Defense Department handle this method of innovation.

A: To ARPA's credit, not only did they make this high-risk high-payoff bet, but they were wonderful in the way they managed it. They didn't lean on you and didn't restrict how the network was used. You didn't need authorization to send the kind of message I did. By and large the messages were about the kind of technology we were developing, but there wasn't a lot of bureaucratic overhead and that allowed us to accelerate unbelievably. That was the case until the dot-coms came in -- then we started seeing restrictions, charging, spain e-mail.

Q: Where will the wireless Internet take things?

A: Messaging and interaction between people, and immediate access to certain kinds of data. Stock market data, traffic information, travel information, location-based information like "Where's the nearest pizza shop?" That kind of consumer-oriented stuff is going to explode. People just love that kind of thing.

Q: What about new devices?

A: Right now we are in the middle of this strange period with PDAs and cell phones, digital cameras. They are getting more and more capabilities, but they're able to merge them now. Some of the integrated devices will emerge, they'll be Internet enabled, Wi-Fi enabled, and we'll begin to see the. consumer in their mobile world generating a huge amount of data. They'll be taking pictures with digital cameras, sending them around. In Japan, they're really hot on this stuff and it's not happening in this country yet. It will happen here. These devices are too seductive.

Q: What are you researching now at UCLA?

A: One thing we're working on is pre-fetching strategies. If I'm looking at a Web page and there are links there, will the system be smart enough to know which of those links to bring into my computer before I click on them, so they are there immediately instead of waiting for the server. We're also working on intelligent agents where you take advantage of the resources spread across the network. I'm working on algorithms that allow autonomous intelligent agents to be out there and collectively achieve a goal we set out for them with very little interaction.

Q: How will this show up in real life?

A: The computer will communicate with you on the move. It will say, "Hurry up, AOL just dropped 10 points, read the news." These proxies will do things on your behalf and alert you at the level you want.

Q: How does your company, Nomadix, use Wi-Fi?

A: We work closely with Wi-Fi networks at establishments like coffeehouses. If you walk into a coffeehouse with your laptop, the access is there but is totally unacceptable. Our software makes a business out of the technology available. It manages all that -- access, presentation of service, billing, user authorization, and global roaming. Just like wireless service, the roaming is in a very invisible fashion.

Q: Why stay in teaching all these years?

A: It's a wonderful profession. You don't have a boss, you do research on what you want, you pick your students. It's prestigious, the best talent in the world comes to see you to lecture, you travel, the money is good, and if you want you can make more money in consulting or forming companies. You work with young people soit keeps you young.

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Leonard Kleinrock

Titles: Professor; Chairman

Organizations: UCLA's Computer Science Department; Nomadix Inc.

Born: 1934, New York 

Education: Bachelor's degree, electrical engineering, City College of New York; Master's degree and Ph.D., electrical engineering, MIT 

Career Turning Point: Going to graduate school at MIT.

Most Admired Person: Claude Shannon, MIT professor

Personal: Married, four children.

Hobbies: Karate, biking