[ICTs-and-Society] [iDC] history of protocols

[Armin Wagner]

Hello Claus, Hello all,

As far as I know, it was the term "procedure" which was common in the context of pre-computational tele-communication, not "protocol".

Why did the engineers of the 1960s call their procedures "protocols" and why did they mirror Mabillon's protocol? Personally I doubt they occupied themselves with medieval manuscripts. But they certainly were influenced by academic culture. Isn't Mabillon's terminology a textual substitute for the court activities of heralds and seneschals at his time, rituals which again were mimicked by Academia? Here's a short clip of the inauguration of 17th President of the MIT, all with ceremonial robes and trumpets. http://amps-web.amps.ms.mit.edu/Institute/2012-2013/inaugural/od-high.html (the "invocation" happens at 3:00)

I'm a long time lurker here and this is my first post too. Sorry for the esoteric reply.

Best,
Armin

> 
> On 29.06.2013, at 12:12, Claus Pias <claus.pias at univie.ac.at> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Dear all, 
>> 
>> I am curious if anyone did some historical research on WHY protocols were called "protocols". From the existing literature and old RFC's I vaguely know WHEN transmission protocols emerged and how the structure of packages was defined in the times of early online-systems. There are also a few texts on the history of protocol engineering (i.e. Computer Networks 54(2010) 3197-3209). But as far as I see, no one yet asked the questions why the term "protocol" was chosen. 
>> 
>> The background is that I am working on medieval and early modern documents (deeds) whose structure is called "protocol" in diplomatics (in the sense of Mabillon). In fact, the structure of digital data packages very much resembles the structure of deeds, that follow a highly formalized framework of invocatio, intitulatio, inscriptio, narratio, sanctio, corroboratio, eschatocoll  (to use the latin rhetorical terms) that are equivalent to time stamp, sender, receiver, message, 'checksum' or authentifier etc. etc. Questions of security of transmission were crucial for that kind of structure.  
>> 
>> Was anyone aware of this historical notion of "protocol" when the term was introduced to computer networks in the 1960's?
>> 
>> My apologies for such an esoteric question -- it's my first post here.
>> 
>> Best wishes, 
>> Claus
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> --
>> Claus Pias
>> Leuphana University Lüneburg, Wallstr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg / Germany
>> Professor for History and Epistemology of Media (ICAM)
>> Director, Institute for Advanced Study in Media-Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS)
>> 
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