less_0375505784_4p_01_r1.qxd 9/21/01 13:49 Page 26
3
C o m m o n s
o n
t h e
W i r e s
T
he internet is a network of networks. In the main, these networks connect over wires. All of these wires, and the machines linked by them, are controlled by someone. The vast majority are owned by private parties— owned, that is, by individuals and corporations that have chosen to link to the Net. Some are owned by the government. Yet this vast network of privately owned technology has built one of the most important innovation commons that we have ever known. Built on a platform that is controlled, the protocols of the Internet have erected a free space of innovation. These private networks have created an open resource that any can draw upon and that many have. Understanding how, and in what sense, is the aim of this chapter.
paul baran was a researcher at the Rand Corporation from 1959 to 1968. His project in the early 1960s was communications reliability. The fear slowly dawning upon the leaders of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal was that the communications system controlling that arsenal was vulnerable to the smallest of attacks. An accident, or a single nuclear explosion, could disable the ability of the commander in chief to command. Chaos—or worse—would be unavoidable. Baran’s task was to explore a more secure telecommunications system. His first step was to understand the system then in place. So he asked the then provider of telecommunications in America, American Telephone &