The ASCII Character Set is the earliest character/glyph mapping table  and internal code page aimed at communication between  different data processing equipment and their parts/peripherals. It was one of the earliest  "digital commons" because it regulates  every party, from software to hardware, system to component,  through the requirement to adhere to the same (meta-)language. It has special features like the "escape" character to include different alphabets or control code, which create the flexibility to use various forms of communication within the limitations of a simple basic infrastructure.