Protocol: how control exists after decentralization

Alexander R. Galloway

MIT Press, 2004 - Computers - 260 pages

Is the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual bureaucracy? In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the preface.

Galloway begins by examining the types of protocols that exist, including TCP/IP, DNS, and HTML. He then looks at examples of resistance and subversion—hackers, viruses, cyberfeminism, Internet art—which he views as emblematic of the larger transformations now taking place within digital culture. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions of the Net that were so widespread in earlier days.

What people are saying

Review: Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization

User Review  - Marty - Goodreads

I've seen this book in various footnotes for a number of years and finally got a hold of a copy. It chronicles the rise of the Internet and specifically the interaction of technological protocols and ...

Review: Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization

User Review  - lilly - Goodreads

The internet is not the wild and free party everyone says. It's governed by protocol that allows all the ad hoc networking to happen. DNS is hierarchical and can be taken down too. This is a model for ...

About the author

Alexander R. Galloway is Assistant Professor of Media Ecology at New York University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Protocol: how control exists after decentralization; Leonardo (MIT Press); Leonardo (Series) (Cambridge, Mass.); Leonardo Bks; Leonardo Series
• Author: Alexander R. Galloway
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: MIT Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0262072475, 9780262072472
• Length: 260 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Internet / General; Computers / Web / General