Decentralization: Communication Standards

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Decentralization: Communication Standards

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ July 20, 2008 ⋅

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Bees have a special dance to indicate the direction and distance to a food source or an enemy. Ants drop scents on a path to food. Sharing quickly, constantly and securely is the lifeblood of a swarm.

Human swarms share with each other too. The editors of the Internet-based open source encyclopedia Wikipedia rely on a variety of communication tools: RSS Feeds, chat rooms, email alerts, and talk pages. Through these they are immediately alerted to any problems. In Africa and Asia, people are creating businesses leasing cell phones so that farmers can check market conditions in the city before they head out with their wares. Communication is critical to human endeavors.

Swarms require an infrastructure for the dense communication of functional information–the basic stuff you need to work: threats, opportunities, food sources, new members, etc. This does not mean all participants must be in constant communication. Not all bees are dancing at the same time. However, the system must enable the secure, prompt, broad dissemination of information from the swarm to its members and outside audiences. Communication can take two forms: one-to-many broadcast streams, and many-to-many conversations. Each have their role. Ant scents and bee dances are a form of one-to-many communication. Online threaded discussion boards and face-to-face conferences are both forms of many-to-many communication.

Communication guides a swarm’s actions. More frequent communication enables “mid-course corrections.” Less frequent or unreliable communications causes stragglers to go the wrong way.
Communication also enables feedback on projects. Most projects make a series of small mistakes as they “feel their way” to success. When information is shared, these small mistakes can be quickly corrected before they become mistakes.

Communication recruits new members. The swarm attracts new people by sharing its plausible promise with potential new members. Since a swarm is essentially a group of relationships, expansion is governed by the ease of communication: the easier it is to join the communication system, and the greater the perceived value for doing so, the more people will be likely to say “yes.”

Whatever communication system you adopt—SMS, e-mail, printed messages—it must be easy to use or no one will use it. It must be relatively secure, or it may be intercepted by those who would subvert the swarm’s purpose, take it over for their own use, or try to destroy it. It must enable both one-way “group broadcasts” and 2-way one-on-one communication.

Open communication fosters trust.
John Maxwell

Case studies
• In Nigeria, Internet access is often difficult and expensive, and surface mail is slow and costly. People instead use cell phones and SMS messages to communicate.
• Low-tech: Somali warlord Aidid proved adept at eluding those seeking to capture him while retaining full control over his forces by means of runners and drum codes.
• Although individual blog writers author their own blogs, most focused on a particular topic are aware of each other, monitor each other’s writing and exchange comments. Bloggers have affected elections, toppled well-known news media leaders, and had a significant role in the spread of ideas as well as fads. This trend is not contained in the West: China is estimated to have over 60 million bloggers in 2007 despite censorship laws.

Journal it
• What communication methods are used by 90% of your current members and the majority of your audience?
• Can you agree on a common communications protocol?
• Is anything keeping you from using this system, right now?
• How can you improve the frequency and quality of communication?