To target documented failure modes (accumulation of power, invisible labour concentration), the creation, maintenance, and adaptation of protocols is organised in a decentralised way. We specifically employ the following strategies:
Shared commitments: All protocols must serve a small set of collectively derived commitments, including an explicit reckoning with racialisation, colonialism, and extractive domination as foundational structures Fabric exists within. The precise formulation is to be developed collectively, based on existing resources like the Dedications.
Creating protocols: New protocols are proposed in response to identified needs. Before adoption, every protocol undergoes an inquiry into asymmetry (who benefits, who is burdened, whose ways of knowing are privileged) and narrative (which experiences does this enable, which narrative does it amplify?), a three-layer completeness check, and a consent round among those affected.
Adopting and evolving protocols: Protocols are adopted voluntarily but with consequence: adopting a cluster constitutes membership. Protocols evolve through consent, with changes communicated to all adopters and transition periods for adaptation. Consciousness raising and conceptual engineering, i.e. collaboratively naming experiences is how protocols learn.
Distributing stewardship: Invisible coordination labour concentrated in the most committed is the paradigmatic failure mode for distributed networks. Specify stewardship requirements in every protocol: what tending it needs, by whom, for how long, with what resources, reviewed on what schedule. Stewardship can be held by a role, a pair, or – when the collective decision-making cluster is adopted – a circle accountable for tending a protocol cluster. The form follows the protocols adopted; the principle is that stewardship is always specified, never assumed. Rotate stewardship with the review cycle, cap individual loads, hold every function in pairs from different organisations, track stewardship as a contribution, and fund it from the shared resource pool.
The wisdom function: A dedicated function periodically examines the protocol ecosystem: Are protocols proliferating unsustainably? Are they drifting from shared commitments? Are critique and contemplation actually being practised? Where are dark economies forming? One structural possibility is a cross-cutting group composed of stewards from different protocol domains – ensuring that no single node accumulates oversight power over the ecosystem as a whole. This function is itself protected from becoming a power centre through rotation, mandate limits, and accountability to the wider network.