op-ed illustration

for the New York Times

Stephen Crocker’s op-ed celebrates the 40th anniversary of Request for Comments (or R.F.C.’s). R.F.C.’s started out as simple memos between the hundred or fewer computer scientists who were using the rudimentary computer network that would become the World Wide Web. Now, 5,498 R.F.C.’s later, these documents “shape the Internet’s inner workings and have played a significant role in its success.”