The Self-Governing Internet: Coordination by Design
Sharon Gillett, Mitchell D. Kapor · The MIT Press eBooks · 1997
Contrary to its popular portrayal as anarchy, the Internet is actually managed, though not by a manager in the traditional sense of the word. This paper explains how the decentralized Internet is coordinated into a unified system. It draws an analogy to an organizational style in which a manager sets up a system that allows 99% of day-to-day functions to be handled by empowered employees, leaving the manager free to deal with the 1% of exceptional issues. Within that framework, it discusses: how the Internet's technical design and cultural understandings serve as the system that automates 99% of Internet coordination; what the 1% of exceptional issues are in today's Internet, how they are handled by multiple authorities, and where the stresses lie in the current structure; and the differences in mindset that distinguish the Internet's self-governance from the management of more traditional communication systems.