{"id":77,"date":"2009-04-07T06:03:21","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T06:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/04\/why_the_internet_works\/"},"modified":"2009-04-07T06:03:21","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T06:03:21","slug":"why_the_internet_works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/why_the_internet_works.html","title":{"rendered":"Why the internet works"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"internethistory.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/internethistory.JPG?resize=394%2C128\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"394\" height=\"128\" \/><\/span><br \/> &#8220;We always tried to design each new protocol to be both useful in its own right <span class=\"italic\">and <\/span>a<br \/>\nbuilding block available to others. We did not think of protocols as<br \/>\nfinished products, and we deliberately exposed the internal<br \/>\narchitecture to make it easy for others to gain a foothold. This was<br \/>\nthe antithesis of the attitude of the old telephone networks, which<br \/>\nactively discouraged any additions or uses they had not sanctioned.&#8221;<i> &#8211; Stephen Crocker, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/07\/opinion\/07crocker.html\">explaining <\/a>how early net standards were developed and adopted.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Are the arts the telephone companies or the internet pioneers? <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We always tried to design each new protocol to be both useful in its own right and a building block available to others. We did not think of protocols as finished products, and we deliberately exposed the internal architecture to make it easy for others to gain a foothold. This was the antithesis of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-77","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-1f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/08\/good_intentions-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":0},"title":"Great Expectations (Except When They&#039;re Not)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"August 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ken Brecher tells this story about Alexander Graham Bell. The inventor of the telephone apparently spent the last part of his life railing against the way people were using his invention. When greeting someone on the phone, he insisted, the proper protocol was to exclaim \"ahoy!\" Saying \"hello\" was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/08\/good_intentions-2.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"telephone.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/telephone.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_community_and_zingers.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":1},"title":"John: Community and Zingers","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I retain a certain affection for dumbed-down classics, since (even with childhood piano lessons) I was led into my love for classical music as a young teenager by Arthur Fiedler. Still, I agree with your notion that high-arts organizations should concentrate on serious arts for those who love them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/06\/is_working_for_free_a_threat_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":2},"title":"Is Working For Free A Threat Or An Opportunity?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Google has asked prominent illustrators if they'd like to create new skins for the company's Chrome browser. Here's the catch: Google isn't offering any money for the designs. Google expects artists to contribute for free. Understandably, many illustrators and artists are protesting; a rich company like Google can afford to\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/06\/is_working_for_free_a_threat_o.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Free_The_word_200x200.gif","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/Free_The_word_200x200.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":84,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/inviting_the_audience_in_and_l.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":3},"title":"Inviting The Audience In (And Letting Them Use You How They Want)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"At a time when the American newspaper industry increasingly considers ways to lock down its content and put it behind pay walls, the ever-innovative Guardian newspaper is flinging wide its gates and making it easier for others to take and use its content. Last month the paper announced something it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"GuardianOpenPlatform.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/GuardianOpenPlatform.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2015\/01\/culture-crashing-is-the-internet-killing-our-creative-class.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":4},"title":"Culture-crashing &#8211; Is The Internet Killing Our Creative Class?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott Timberg, an arts journalist and author of the CultureCrash blog on ArtsJournal, has a new book out called... Culture Crash. It's Scott's attempt to look at how the digital revolution has impacted artists. The tagline of the book - \"The Killing of the Creative Class\" - gives you an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;arts &amp; tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"arts &amp; tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"jpeg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/jpeg-180x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3338,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2026\/03\/aj-chronicles-why-tech-infrastructure-is-the-most-important-arts-story-of-the-year.html","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":5},"title":"AJ Chronicles: Why Tech Infrastructure is Becoming the Most Important Arts Story of 2026","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The infrastructure carrying culture to audiences \u2014 legal, technical, financial, corporate \u2014 was not built for the creative sector. It was built by and for technology companies, telecommunications firms, and entertainment conglomerates.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;arts &amp; tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"arts &amp; tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fotolehrling-railway-station-1363771_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fotolehrling-railway-station-1363771_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fotolehrling-railway-station-1363771_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fotolehrling-railway-station-1363771_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fotolehrling-railway-station-1363771_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}