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Salon II: ARC Regenerative Communities - 2024 Protocol Symposium

TalkKaliya Young, day
Salon II: ARC Regenerative Communities - 2024 Protocol Symposium

Kaliya Young and 'day' present research into the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a case study in regenerative governance, tracing its origins from the 1969 ARPANET through the 1992 governance crisis that shifted power from Vint Cerf's 'kitchen cabinet' IAB to open working groups organized around 'rough consensus and running code.' They map IETF practices—nomcom's randomized leadership selection, open RFC documentation, dispatch meetings, and ritualized in-person gatherings—onto three pattern languages (Group Works, Wise Democracy, and Social Permaculture) to argue that openness, transparency, and voluntariness are structural necessities, not limitations, for sustaining a healthy digital commons.

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