Self-Internet

"The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it"

John Gilmore

The following is by far the best article that I ever read on the Net about what Internet is.

Here's a brief summary:

What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else.

by Doc Searls and David Weinberger

The Nutshell

1. The Internet isn't complicated
2. The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.
3. The Internet is stupid.
4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value.
5. All the Internet's value grows on its edges.
6. Money moves to the suburbs.
7. The end of the world? Nah, the world of ends.
8. The Internet's three virtues:
a. No one owns it
b. Everyone can use it
c. Anyone can improve it
9. If the Internet is so simple, why have so many been so boneheaded about it?
10. Some mistakes we can stop making already

All we need to do is pay attention to what the Internet really is. It's not hard. The Net isn't rocket science.

It isn't even 6th grade science fair, when you get right down to it. We can end the tragedy of Repetitive Mistake Syndrome in our lifetimes - and save a few trillion dollars' worth of dumb decisions - if we can just remember one simple fact: the Net is a world of ends.

You're at one end, and everybody and everything else are at the other ends.

Sure, that's a feel-good statement about everyone having value on the Net, etc. But it's also the basic rock-solid fact about the Net's technical architecture. And the Internet's value is founded in its technical architecture.

Fortunately, the true nature of the Internet isn't hard to understand. In fact, just a fistful of statements stands between Repetitive Mistake Syndrome and Enlightenment?

The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.

When we look at utility poles, we see networks as wires. And we see those wires as parts of systems: The phone system, the electric power system, the cable TV system.

When we listen to radio or watch TV, we're told during every break that networks are sources of programming being beamed through the air or through cables.

But the Internet is different. It isn't wiring. It isn't a system. And it isn't a source of programming.

The Internet is a way for all the things that call themselves networks to coexist and work together. It's an inter-network. Literally.

What makes the Net inter is the fact that it's just a protocol - the Internet Protocol, to be exact.? A protocol is an agreement about how things work together.

This protocol doesn't specify what people can do with the network, what they can build on its edges, what they can say, who gets to talk. The protocol simply says: If you want to swap bits with others, here's how. If you want to put a computer - or a cell phone or a refrigerator - on the network, you have to agree to the agreement that is the Internet.

The full article (of public domain) is at the following address:

http://worldofends.com/