Scaling Information Infrastructure: The Case of Next-Generation IP in the Internet

. An information infrastructure has to scale, hence change, as it expands. This creates a dilemma. The expansion fuels new patterns of use which require changes while, on the other hand, the diffusion of and investments in the information infrastructure has a strong, conservative influence --- the intertia of the installed base. The changes required to implement the scaling have to be small-step. An information infrastructure is not "changed", it undergoes transitions. These transitions are highly involved socio-technical negotiations. This paper is based on a case study of the efforts to change the internet protocol (IP) in Internet to facilitate further growth. The revision of IP is the most serious challenge to the continued scaling of the Internet during its near 30 years of existence. Keywords: information infrastructure, scaling, transition strategy, Internet, inertia of the installed base, actor-network theory 1. Introduction Infrastructure technology lasts for many years and...