[ih] principles of the internet

[mbaer at cs.tu-berlin.de (Matthias Bärwolff)]

Dear all,

I am in the middle of an argumentative research exercise in which I try
to map a set of principles that are central to the Internet (descriptive
principles, as informed by practices and universality of applicability;
not normative principles following purposes other than system stability
and individual liberty). Since most here have plenty of hands-on
experience I would be very appreciative of some feedback -- on-list,
off-list; long, short; however you like it.

I made up the following list:

1. original end-to-end arguments and economic efficiency concerns
(speaking to completeness and efficiency of implementation)

2. modularity, minimal coupling, and layering (speaking to the general
architecture)

3. least privilege, and best effort (speaking to the actual shape of the
interdependencies)

4. cascadability and symmetry (speaking to the rules of efficient and
flexible protocol design)

5. running code, complexity avoidance, rough consensus, and path
dependence (speaking to the governance process and its stability)

Thanks for all your takes.

Matthias

-- 
Matthias B?rwolff
www.b?rwolff.de