By Johna Till Johnson and Johna Till Johnson, Network World, 08/22/05

Networking people tend to be unusually interested in politics and effective governance strategies. That's because networking is the art and science of making many disparate entities cooperate for the common good - which also happens to be the primary challenge of effective government.

Before the Internet, the defining governance model was monarchy, with Ma Bell as the unquestioned queen, operating with autocratic authority. The Internet broke that model, returning power to the "states" (individual ISPs) and "people" (individual routers), each of which makes informed decisions based on the best-available information.