mnot.net

[](/personal/)

mark nottingham

===============

Welcome to my site.  

You can find out more [about me](/personal/), or jump directly to my [résumé](/personal/resume/).

### current projects

*   Serving on the [Internet Architecture Board](https://iab.org/)

*   Chairing the IETF [HTTP Working Group](https://httpwg.org/)

*   Chairing the IETF [AI Preferences Working Group](https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/aipref/about/)

*   Leading [Cloudflare](https://cloudflare.com/)’s technical standards participation

*   Advising the [UK Competition and Markets Authority’s Digital Markets Unit](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/experts-appointed-as-uk-looks-to-level-digital-playing-field-for-consumers)

*   Arranging the [HTTP Workshop](https://httpworkshop.org/)

*   Learning about governance at the [Australian Institute of Company Directors](https://www.aicd.com.au)

*   Learning about intellectual property from [CopyrightX](https://cyber.harvard.edu/teaching/copyrightx)

*   Testing HTTP resources with [REDbot.org](https://redbot.org/)

*   Discovering how caches work at [cache-tests.fyi](https://cache-tests.fyi/)

*   Making RFCs easier to find using [rfc.fyi](https://rfc.fyi/)

*   Contributing to [Mutually Assured Education](https://lemmy.ml/c/mae), a linkblog for tech policy papers

*   Collecting good bars at [Cocktail Standards](https://cocktailstandards.github.io/)

See also my [specs in progress](https://mnot.github.io/I-D/), [projects at Github](https://github.com/mnot/) and [random code snippets](https://gist.github.com/mnot).

### writing and presentations

*   _Series_: [The Nature of Internet Standards](/blog/series/internet-standards/)

*   [RFC 9518: Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9518.html)

*   [RFC 8890: The Internet is for End Users](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8890.html)

*   [Caching Tutorial](/cache_docs/) for Web authors and Webmasters

*   [RSS and Atom Feed Tutorial](/rss/tutorial/) for content publishers and Webmasters

*   An Opinionated Guide to [Melbourne](/guides/melbourne/)

*   [What to Expect from HTTP/2](/talks/http2-expectations/) 2012; presented at Boeing, AirBnB, BBC, etc.

*   [What’s up with HTTP?](https://speakerdeck.com/mnot/whats-up-with-http) 2008; presented at Bell Labs, Google, Yahoo!

See also [other talks I’ve given](/talks/) and [my academic papers](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=4357970).

### snapshot

### recent thoughts on my [blog](/blog/)

*   [Apple’s Best Option: Decentralize iCloud](/blog/2025/02/09/decentralize-icloud "Sunday, February  9 2025")   What can Apple do in the face of a UK order to weaken encryption worldwide? Decentralize iCloud, to start.

*   [Platform Advantages: Not Just Network Effects](/blog/2024/11/29/platforms "Friday, November 29 2024")   A new book explores an intriguing idea: that there are core processes in some platforms that naturally tilt the table towards being implemented in a single company.

*   [On Opting Out of Copyright](/blog/2024/09/18/opt-out "Wednesday, September 18 2024")   The EU AI Act and emerging practice flip copyright’s default opt-in regime to an opt-out one. What effects is this likely to have on the balance of power between rights holders and reuse?

*   [What RSS Needs](/blog/2024/08/25/feeds "Sunday, August 25 2024")   Web feeds could be so much more if we put some effort into them. This post explores some ideas of how to start.

*   [Are Internet Standards Competitive or Collaborative?](/blog/2024/07/16/collaborative_standards "Tuesday, July 16 2024")   It's often assumed that standards work is inherently competitive. This post examines why Internet standards are often more collaborative than competitive, and outlines some implications of this approach.

*   [Openness in Internet Standards: Necessary, but Insufficient](/blog/2024/07/05/open_internet_standards "Friday, July  5 2024")   The phrase 'Open Standards' is widely used but not well-understood. Let's take a look at what openness in standards is, with a focus on whether and how it helps to legitimise the design and maintenance of the Internet.

*   [Consensus in Internet Standards](/blog/2024/05/24/consensus "Friday, May 24 2024")   It’s common for voluntary technical standards developing organisations (SDOs such as the IETF and W3C) to make decisions by consensus, rather than (for example) voting. This post explores why we use consensus, what it is, how it works in Internet standards and when its use can become problematic.

*   [Modularity: Enabling Interoperability and Competition](/blog/2024/05/10/design-rules-vol-one "Friday, May 10 2024")   Mandated interoperability is often highlighted as a way to improve competition on the Internet. However, most of the interoperability we see there today was established voluntarily: mandating it is relatively uncharted territory, with many potential pitfalls.

_[more...](/blog/#post-9)_