Internet Protocol

In the Internet, there is no central node, and only minimal centralized
management structure, limited to a few housekeeping
functions such as standards setting.
-PAUL UARAN

We all know the internet, the world wide web, the decentralisation of information, connecting people all over the globe. It can't be governed, it can't be controlled....or can it?

The answer is yes, kind of. But how can control exist in a decentralised network? Cue Alexander Galloway 'Protocol: how control exists after decentralisation'. Now this was a full-on reading. Despite being more difficult to engage with than previous readings, it did give me an appreciation of the importance of internet protocol, which was something I previously hadn't given much thought to other than the fact that it probably existed.

"Protocol is a type of controlling logic that operates outside institutional, governmental, and corporate power." (Galloway, p.6). It was quite amazing to read how the internet, a massive decentralised network that is used by millions of people everyday is in fact 'controlled' by a small group of techno-elite peers, such as the IETF. I also enjoyed the description of those who write protocol as “an ad-hocracy of intensely creative, sleep-deprived, idiosyncratic, well-meaning computer geniuses.”

This reading revealed just how complex protocol can be, that the internet is in fact based on a principle of control, however a control centered on universalism and of homogeneity. That it must promote standardization in order to enable openness.

Thankfully someone else is taking care of it is all I can say...