This article continues a theoretical investigation into protocolization as a planetary transformation of technologically-mediated behaviors into coordination infrastructure, arguing that protocols operate invisibly across technical, institutional, and social domains at multiple scales. The authors seek to develop formal models and generalizable features of protocols that can be reliably applied across diverse contexts, addressing the methodological challenge of locating and theorizing protocolization despite its ubiquity and invisibility.
The Casio F-91W, a $14 plastic watch worn by everyone from Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden, exemplifies a design philosophy of \"unreasonable adequacy\"—meeting basic needs through durability, reliability, and ubiquity rather than sophistication. Its emergence as both a cultural icon and an object of security concern reveals how humble consumer gadgets become entangled with geopolitics, popular culture, and surveillance.
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Faber Birren pioneered the strategic use of color in industrial design to shape worker behavior, safety responses, and emergency protocols, making color a crucial but often overlooked element of Protocol Experience (PX) design. The essay explores how pigment functions as a cheap, persistent, and robust design variable for control systems, from OSHA safety standards to control room layouts, requiring only ambient light rather than electricity to establish effective default schemas.
Venkatesh Rao
This essay introduces protocolization as a planetary phenomenon where progress occurs through invisibility and the expansion of computational systems, establishing qualitative frameworks before Part II develops formal theoretical apparatus. The authors present this work from the Special Interest Group in Formal Protocol Theory (SIGFPT) as an invitation to collectively theorize how protocols structure contemporary life at planetary scale.
Venkatesh Rao, Patrick Nast