- The early development of the Internet was shaped less by grand strategy than by collaboration, trust and a shared belief in openness, according to Brian Carpenter, one of the engineers who helped lay its foundations.
- Speaking to BTW Media as part of its History of the Internet series, Carpenter reflected on how those early values contrast sharply with today’s struggles over governance, power and regional autonomy.
This interview is part of BTW Media’s new series, ‘The History of the Internet,’ which interviews the key engineers and computer scientists who helped build and create the Internet.
Brian Carpenter, an early internet engineer, contributed to the Internet’s technical architecture and later to governance discussions that shaped how the network scaled globally. He is the author of Network Geeks, which offers an insider account of how engineers, academics and institutions collectively built what became the world’s most critical communications system.
How early collaboration shaped the internet’s foundations
Carpenter began his career working on academic and research networks at a time when networking technologies were still experimental and largely confined to universities. He said his early attraction to networking lay in its problem-solving nature and the sense that engineers were building something genuinely new, without rigid hierarchies or commercial pressure. Decisions were made through discussion and rough consensus, with technical merit carrying more weight than institutional authority.
A defining feature of that period, Carpenter explained, was the collaborative culture among engineers. Work was openly shared, protocols were documented and debated, and mistakes were treated as learning opportunities rather than failures. This environment allowed innovation to move quickly and helped ensure that the Internet remained interoperable across borders and institutions.
Over time, however, Carpenter said it became clear that the Internet was no longer just a technical system. As connectivity spread globally, the network evolved into a social, economic and political infrastructure. Questions of who controls critical resources, who sets the rules and whose interests are prioritised began to surface, particularly as governments and corporations recognised the Internet’s strategic value.
Also read: The ‘father of the internet’: Interview with Vint Cerf
Concentration of power puts internet’s founding principles at risk
Carpenter’s reflections carry particular weight as regions around the world confront growing external pressure over digital infrastructure and governance. He warned that the concentration of influence in a small number of global institutions or commercial actors risks undermining the Internet’s original ethos and weakening regional autonomy.
For today’s engineers and policymakers, Carpenter argued, the key lesson from the Internet’s early development is the importance of inclusive governance and respect for local contexts. Reform efforts, he suggested, are justified when existing structures fail to reflect the needs of diverse regions or become disconnected from the communities they serve. Without such reform, there is a risk that the Internet could drift further away from its original purpose as a shared, neutral platform.
As debates over digital sovereignty and governance intensify, Carpenter’s experience serves as a reminder that the Internet’s resilience has always depended on cooperation rather than control. Preserving that balance, he said, will be one of the defining challenges of the next phase of the Internet’s history.
