If you've been following my work, particularly on Twitter, you might have recognized a recurring theme: I explore community dynamics, with a unique emphasis on online coordination, and more recently, onchain activities. This summer, I’ve had the privilege to join the Summer of Protocols and fully focus on this research. The program is sponsored by the Ethereum Foundation and led by Venkatesh Rao, the author of Ribbonfarm. If you haven’t read about the program, I’d recommend you take a look at the Pilot Study that was published this March.

As you may have guessed, the program orbits around protocols. What exactly are they? How do they function? How do they stand apart from standards, rituals, APIs, and procedures? Intuitively, protocols appear to facilitate large-scale, hivemind-style coordination and tackle complex problems with often surprisingly simple, codified behaviors. In today's era of 'protocolization,' understanding protocols is becoming increasingly urgent, with the zeitgeist pushing these discussions to the forefront of the tech industry. As debates around ownership and communal resources intensify in the wake of AGI, there's a growing demand for major corporations to create and maintain public protocols instead of private ones; even VC investment theses are including the concept. There’s something in the air.

However, our understanding of protocols is still limited. As noted by Alexander Galloway, most protocols 'generally resist interpretation’ and, as noted by Venkat in the pilot study, good protocols often blend seamlessly into the backdrop of our society. Like a skilled theatre operations crew, protocols become invisible through excellence, yet a careful eye catches glimpses of them everywhere. Today, blockchain protocols are the center of attention. Previously, TCP/IP was the buzzword among tech founders. However, other protocols, those related to urban planning, credibility, and international peace, have only come into focus recently, as they bend and fracture due to changing societal needs and technological shifts.

Given this context, we have a civic responsibility to research protocol concepts and design new protocols with whatever wisdom we can gather. A well-designed protocol led to the internet, another to a decentralized means of global exchange (blockchain money), and the next one might define our relationship to ubiquitous superhuman intelligence. Our aspiration is that the Summer of Protocols begins to equip us with the right tools for the extensive journey of the long 21st century.

The word ‘Community’ carries different connotations depending on the context, observer, and space. In the ‘real world’, or meatspace, it is used for everything from Homeowner Associations and brand marketing to grassroots activism, political mobilization, and neighborhood clubs. Online, it could mean a group chat, a product advocacy group, or a celebrity fandom. I suspect that the frequent use of 'Community' is not a coincidence; it is likely these formations, especially internet-native ones, share certain foundational protocols. One thing is clear though: they are distinct from modern firms, institutions, or tech startups.

During the SoP program, I hope to describe why these protocols vary and how they interact. The project will focus on online formations such as swarms, fandoms, and communities, and how they relate to traditional entities such as corporations and international enterprises. The aim will be to uncover the protocols these formations use as a basis of organization - many of which are probably hiding in plain sight. Just in the first week, there are hints at protocols such as chain-of-command, social mimicking, and bribing. If the research is successful, we will find some commonalities, varying temporalities, and hints of interaction resonance.

By articulating the organizing protocols of these formations, we will then be able to better understand their interactions, shadows, and challenges. Recent events such as the SVB bank run and memestock mania (e.g. GME, Tesla, and AMC) have already illustrated some limitations of conventional management approaches when encountering highly networked groups online.

For those interested, I’ve split the project into roughly three phases:

Phase 1: Protocols for Online Formations and the Modern Firm

1. Guiding question: What protocols shape the structures of our organizations today? How do they vary between formations ‘born online’ and those which are ‘traditional businesses’?

2. Example Activities:

   1. Develop a framework to describe various online formations

   2. Characterize online swarms and document their organizing protocol

   3. Document core management protocols in modern business structures

Phase 2: Modern Business Insufficiency

1. Guiding question: Why do modern businesses struggle to cooperate with online formations like swarms and fandoms? Are they intrinsically adversarial?

2. Example Activities:

   1. Wargame the interaction between swarms and modern businesses

   2. Document real-world case studies

   3. Generalize how protocol interaction leads to specific fracture patterns

Phase 3: Online Community Sufficiency

1. Guiding question: Why do online communities seem to survive and thrive, even when encountering adversarial groups like social farming and swarming raids?

2. Example Activities:

   1. Wargame the interaction between swarms and online communities

   2. Document real-world case studies

   3. Generalise patterns that make online communities sufficiently tolerant

In addition, as part of the research, I hope to also collect questions for others to look into. Here are a few that are top-of-mind this week:

• Could there be ways to minimize the negative externalities of viral content?

• How do protocols inform concepts like accountability and belonging?

• Could there be ways to create sustainable, non-ironic, and meaningful spaces of belonging and mutuality in corporate environments?

💡 Currently, I’m having trouble finding good content on non-western online formations and culture. If you have any ideas, please get in touch.

I’m humbled to be working alongside excellent writers and researchers, many of which I’ve looked up to over the years and who’ve inspired my curiosity regarding the positive futures we can manifest together. Moreover, I’m thrilled to invest the time to read seminal pieces of work from modern thinkers such as Byung Chul Han, Danah Boyd, Kaitlyn Tiffany, Rick Falkvinge, Alexander Galloway, Marshall McLuhan, and many more.

I hope to provide an update on my progress once every 1-2 weeks.

Thoughts? Just send me a message at rafael@rafael.fyi, or message me on Twitter @rafathebuilder.

If you’d like to follow along on the journey, I would recommend subscribing to this newsletter and sign-up to receive updates from the program’s newsletter called Protocolized.

All funds from this Writing NFT will be donated to Obras del País, which supports artisans in Puerto Rico.