Project Summary: ARC Regenerative Communities is about outcome-driven civilizational design. To achieve this we attend closely to what works and what does not work when forming, growing, evolving, forking, propagating a community… or letting it die a natural death when its purpose is fulfilled. We can apply prosocial patterns to a conscious process of community formation only when we have a clear pattern language and set of protocols for that process.
This summer we are studying a particular existing regenerative community that specializes in the development of internet protocols – the IETF. This institution is not kept alive by money and staff (like the IEEE), it is not kept alive by charismatic leaders people “follow” (like TBL), it is not kept alive by international treaties that have mandates for an organization to exist (like the ITU). The IETF is kept alive by the energy of people and their decision to actively contribute their energy to the creation of the protocols they develop there. They also actively develop and participate in protocols that are generative forming the “community protocols” . It literally is a recursive organization using its protocol processes to develop protocol processes for protocols. The technical protocols it generates are also available for voluntary adoption.