This week’s reading was a little bit difficult to understand, but i got this quote from it which is a pretty succinct run-down of what this is all about. “Yet instead of governing social or political practices as did their diplomatic predecessors, computer protocols govern how specific technologies are agreed to, adopted, implemented, and ultimately used by people around the world. What was once a question of consideration and sense is now a question of logic and physics.” Basically this quote is juxtaposing the original definition of the word ‘protocol’ (a piece of paper attached to the beginning of a diplomatic document that summarises its policies/arguments/discourse) with the new meaning of ‘protocol’ in terms of computers.

There was also a point raised that related to the previous reading about databases. It basically stipulated that there was a dialectical opposition between two principles within protocol (which is what makes the internet seem so chaotic when it’s not). The hierarchical organisation of data (databases) such as DNS, and the random distribution and transmission of this data between computers, such as IP and TCP.

If we want to get from point A to point B on a highway, that is through IP, which is located because of DNS, then the requirement to stay in between the white lines and stop at a red line is protocol. It all makes a little more sense this way.