[ih] protocol structure -> economic structure

[scott.brim at gmail.com (Scott Brim)]

On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 07:10, Tony Finch <dot at dotat.at> wrote:
> There's an idea that the structure of a protocol (or the topology implied
> by the protocol or that emerges from it) determines the economic structure
> of the service providers and users of that protocol. Sadly I can't now
> remember where I got this idea from.
>
> Does anyone here have pointers to literature mentioning or describing this
> idea? Is anyone acknowledged as its originator? Does it have a snappy name?
>
> Tony.

I can only think of one case where this has been demonstrated to be
true, which is "end-to-end" (or "peer-to-peer") versus "client-server"
(intermediaries required).  In all other cases I can think of, another
level of abstraction covered over any problems presented by lower
layer protocols.

Scott