Patterns

The patterns on Zodiac Wiki describe common problems and offers practical responses for organizations. By co-developing and co-organizing a pattern language together, deeper insights will be revealed.

Background

What may have the most impact on the future isn't decentralized digital technology alone, but the governance patterns it culturally normalizes. Patterns could be defined as events, methods, or ways of being that recur. They reciprocate their environment. They are something that a world shapes and that shapes a world in turn, like intervals of sloping sand dunes formed from wind currents.

In the 1970s, a group of architects spearheaded by the late Christopher Alexander proposed the idea of a pattern language, a series of small descriptions that could inform how we approach our built environment. For example, the design of a house could be arrived at through connecting patterns, such as planning light on two sides of every room or cultivating a garden growing wild next to a sun facing outdoors.

Rather than suggesting one universal pattern language to govern our built environment, the idea of a pattern language encourages many shared cultural vernaculars. It aims to support “a quality without a name”, a feeling of aliveness, interconnectedness, and autonomy in the built environment we inhabit. This feeling comes through responding to a place, rather than imposing on a place.

That the idea of a pattern language directly led to the creation of what would become perhaps the primary medium for knowledge commons, the wiki, should be well-known internet lore.

Contributing Patterns

To submit a pattern, make a PR on the repo. Please note that how you write the pattern is ultimately your choice. There is no standard template. Additionally, pattern categories are intended to be fluid and emergent. We welcome you to help shape how these patterns are presented and linked together.