A friend just asked me if I had any basic tips for decentralized networks. I ripped these off so fast that I realized they had become second nature to me – and they’re really not bad. 
So I thought I would post them here.
If you want a swarm:
1. Be able to clearly articulate your vision – the bigger picture. If you are at the stage, then also be able to articulate your “plausible promise”: the specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, time-defined goal you are working on, as well as your “shared values” – the things you will do and won’t do to achieve the promise. Lift up Jesus and the vision he has given you, and those who share the vision will be drawn to you.
2. Provide online spaces for community gathering before, during, after the meeting – akin to what Lausanne is so spectacularly achieving with the Global Conversation space. A simple e-group or Ning group or wiki or the like would do well. Vision + Community are the primary building blocks.
3. Potentially allow spaces for collaboration. Start with simple stuff with the primary goal of getting people working together, reading each other’s stuff, interacting, commenting. Then move on up to bigger collaborative projects.
4. Make sure to foster an atmosphere of constant tweaking. This is really important. Enabling and encouraging people to encourage, charitably critique, and edit each other is key to introducing regular improvements in tools, materials and methods.
5. Early on, encourage openness. Get people to be willing to share tools that they have and that they have created. The tools will enable people outside your group to do things to fulfill your promise without even being part of your group. And it will also draw people in.
6. Struggle for a level of quality that makes your group an influence on other groups. If you work together in humility, charity, and constant quality improvement, people will look to you to set standards in your particular area.
7. Finally, be sure to aim for multiplication. Some people try to grow empires. Don’t be like that. Be a group that falls like a seed into the ground, willing to die. Help other people start their own ministries that somehow contribute to the bigger vision.
