The original seven living systems – resource distribution, decision-making, feedback and learning, conflict engagement, information flow, care and support, connection and community – do not disappear in a protocol-based architecture. They become areas within which clusters of related protocols operate.
A protocol area is a thematic area of relational life – the space within which a cluster of related protocols operates. When agents adopt the Collective decision-making cluster around a shared domain, the governance structure that emerges is a circle. But the protocol area concept is prior to the circle concept: areas exist wherever protocols cluster, whether or not the agents involved have adopted circle-based governance.
Two areas have been developed as full worked examples with specific protocols:
Five areas have been sketched at the principles level:
The specific protocols in these areas remain to be developed through the process described in Protocol stewardship is distributed.