







Protocols are frequently touted as the liberating alternative to walled technological gardens, but the historical purpose of protocols has always been to simplify decision-making and reduce human agency. How do we reconcile these two narratives? I explore the dangerous side of protocols, and how their ability to drive coordination means they also have
Protocol Reader - Summer of Protocols
The Protocol Reader The Protocol Reader is an 358-page book (currently only available as an epub) comprising 26 foundational essays by 31 authors from the Summer of Protocols program, carefully edited and sequenced to introduce you to the fascinating new discipline of Protocol Studies. It can serve as

Introducing the Protocol Institute
Building a field and community to steward the planetary-scale process of protocolization

Protocol Reader - Summer of Protocols
In the Fall of 2022, the word protocol was suddenly everywhere. The proximal cause was obvious: fueled, in part, by the highly visible and fractious change of ownership at Twitter, large numbers of people began heading for the exits. Most of them, of course, were just looking for

The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols | Summer of Protocols
DRAFT Version 0.99, March 6th, 2023
The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols Web
The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols Venkatesh Rao, Tim Beiko, Danny Ryan, Josh Stark, Trent Van Epps, and Bastian Aue 1. Introduction Complex coordination problems have an air of doomed intractability about them. We speak in fatalistic terms of economics being a “dismal” science, of sociological phenomena being dominated by the

Why a New Protocol? The History and Future of AT Protocol - AT Protocol
Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee and Head of Protocol Daniel Holmgren join for a wide-ranging conversation about what atproto is, why it exists, how it got built, and where it's going next. From a Twitter consultancy to an IETF working group, this is where to get started.

The Purpose of Protocols
Every open social protocol generates shared resources, but none has produced a governance framework adequate to those resources. So who fills that vacuum?

The Purpose of Protocols
Every open social protocol generates shared resources, but none has produced a governance framework adequate to those resources. So who fills that vacuum?

Inventing New Nature
Defining the Protocol Institute's research mission

Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech
So I finally finished reading this and while I agree with the recommendation, I’m a little wary of some of the context it’s rooted in ideologically and I’m wondering if others have thoughts on these things. Equality in the marketplace I think the main problem with the text is that it relies heavily on the idea of “marketplace of ideas,” leaning heavily on the idea that protocols are actually good for markets specifically because they make competition more perfect (because there’s better knowled...

Long Now Lab 001: Protocols for the Long Now
Lab 001.1 is part of the [Protocols for the Long Now](https://longnow.org/labs/001) lab series. Civilizations run on protocols — shared norms for how we keep time, store knowledge, and make decisions together.

A Government Guide to Open Protocols
Public sector teams must go beyond the in-house or off-the-shelf dichotomy to take advantage of open protocols, which offer a unique way to manage both software costs and geopolitical exposure

Paul's article prompted a long one from me: What is the purpose of protocols? connectedplaces.online/the-purpose-of-protocols/
The Purpose of Protocols
connectedplaces.onlineP(aul) Frazee
New blogpost about atproto It's not federation, it's not a p2p mesh. It's a secret third thing: practical. pfrazee.com/blog/practical-decentralizati…
An interview with @masnick.com (of TechDirt), the author of the influential 2019 paper "Protocols, Not Platforms," reflecting on how his ideas apply to publishers in 2026. protocolsforpublishers.com/mike-masnick-interview/
Mike Masnick on protocols for publishers
protocolsforpublishers.com