David Clark

lore

networking

The architect who put the internet's governing philosophy into one sentence in 1992: no kings, no presidents, no voting - rough consensus and running code.

It is the most quoted line in internet governance and it is usually read as a slogan about openness. It is more useful read as a description of a decision procedure, and one with consequences this catalogue keeps recording: a system that advances by rough consensus and working implementations will adopt any improvement one party can deploy alone, and will stall on every improvement that requires everybody to agree at once. Secure routing, DNSSEC and email authentication all waited decades for exactly that reason. The sentence explains both why the internet could be built without permission and why parts of it cannot be repaired.

Also known as: clark, rough consensus, internet architecture

Sources

David Clark and Stephen Wolff, named to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013; at a 1992 meeting Clark summed up the internet's governing philosophy as rejecting kings, presidents and voting, and believing in rough consensus and running code

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