[ih] A paper

[Dave Crocker]

>> One of the design principles of the network (which
>> may not appear in "documentation") was that the network must not have
>> any single point of control, no one in charge.
 >
> That was indeed the key to worldwide success, far beyond its necessity
> for "national security" reasons. Even today, the Internet seems
> remarkably hard to switch off, even in totalitarian states.


Note that BGP was the final brick in that design house.  Until then, 
there was officially a central backbone service, but with BGP it became 
official that there wasn't.

As 'politics' go, that was a particularly liberating functional enhancement.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net