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The is an ongoing effort in MEDLab to explore the possibilities of protocols in diverse areas of human self-governance. We have just published the first ten interviews, which range from a Bangladeshi diplomat to a Denver-based healer, with much in between. We will continue adding more interviews in the coming months.

The project description is as follows:

The Protocol Oral History Project is an effort to honor and share the stories of protocol artists—the skilled builders and stewards of the rules, standards, and norms that shape our lives in often invisible ways, ranging from technical standards and diplomatic practices to Indigenous traditions and radical subcultures.

The website was designed by MEDLab's longtime collaborator . The color-scheme and grid design was inspired by by Robert Houle, which in turn draws on the use of wampum belts as a form of governance in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and other Native American cultures. Hornbein designed a protocol to translate strings of text into patterns. You can try it yourself on the website's About page.

These oral histories are part of the broader project, for which we have also just published a new website. As part of Governance Ecologies, we hope it will contribute to knowledge of repertoires for self-governance from across time and around the world, so as to inform governance designs for the future.