Is the internet at risk of fragmentation? Whereas the literature has examined this question with a focus on domestic policies, communication standards, and internet governance institutions, we analyze fragmentation and alternative outcomes in transnational engineering networks. These networks constitute the social foundations of the unified or ‘global’internet. Our contributions include (1) broadening the debate beyond fragmentation-related network outcomes to include political structuring and organizational concentration, and (2) new evidence from an important engineering network around the Internet Engineering Task Force comprising thousands of participants and over four decades. Our analyses reveal fast and continuous network growth as well as clear signs of growing concentration of the network around a few major companies. A key implication is that, at the level of engineering networks, concerns about internet fragmentation might be unfounded and might distract from more salient developments such as organizational concentration.

中文翻译：

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跨国工程网络中的互联网碎片化、政治结构和组织集中

互联网是否面临碎片化风险？虽然文献研究这个问题的重点是国内政策、通信标准和互联网治理机构，但我们分析了跨国工程网络中的碎片化和替代结果。这些网络构成了统一或“全球”互联网的社会基础。我们的贡献包括 (1) 将辩论扩大到与碎片相关的网络结果之外，包括政治结构和组织集中度，以及 (2) 来自互联网工程任务组周围重要工程网络的新证据，该网络由数千名参与者组成，超过 40 年。我们的分析揭示了快速且持续的网络增长，以及网络围绕几家大公司日益集中的明显迹象。