Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the issuance of the first RFC, or “request for comments,” an important milestone in the development of the Internet. This piece by Stephen Crocker is an enjoyable look back.
The title of the piece is “How the Internet Got its Rules,” which strikes me as poorly chosen. (Titles are often chosen by the publisher, not the writer.) Given the open, collaborative process used then, and still today, to govern much of the Internet’s functioning, “rules” is an inapt substitute for the word “protocols.”
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