Welcome to the Decentralized Community Project!

Hi, I’m Peter Bowden. On behalf of our launch team, I’m excited to share the new Decentralized Community Project!

Inspired by decades helping community organizations design, implement and launch small group networks, the Decentralized Community Project is a model for gathering that transcends any one institution, organization, community or area of interest.

This is a model for promoting connection and meaning built for these times: no hierarchy, no control, no cost. We are offering a common groups sessions format and a vision for connection at scale.

You know there is a loneliness epidemic. Many are talking about a meaning crisis. And now we face fundamental questions about what it means to be human in a world where AI and robots are being designed to take over cognitive and manual layer. These technologies are advancing rapidly.

There is no shortage of topics that are fun, exciting, meaningful, important and urgent to discuss. What’s missing is a way to accelerate connecting, talking, and crowdsourcing our wisdom at speed and scale.

Speed = We need to move fast. We need to connect, engage, and discuss our lives, our world, the future we want so we can be involved in shaping it.

Scale = Everyone needs community, meaning, and purpose. We can get everyone talking about the things that matter. No cost, no leaders, no control, just a simple shared format for gathering so amazing things can happen.

At the heart of the Decentralized Community Project is a flexible common session format anyone can use to spark meaningful conversations. It allows people to write and share their own sessions, gather in decentralized groups, and discuss the topics that matter most.

Session Format at a Glance

• Opening: Welcome & Centering Attention

• Check-In: Brief personal updates or introductions if new

• Session Topic: A short, prepared springboard for conversation.

• Structured Sharing: An initial round of sharing in response to topic.

• Open Discussion: Organic, open-ended exploration

• Wrap Up: Prompt any remaining thoughts, ideas, questions

• Check-Out: A round sharing top takeaway insights from group

• Closing: Closing words, reading or gratitude for group

📄 Here is the Common Session Format and Writing Guide.

Common Session Format

This model invites you to gather with anyone you want, in any context, to discuss any topic of interest, and to use this common session format. Why? Because then you can share it and others can do the same! I’ll be sharing sessions as my group meets.

By having a known shared session format we can crowdsource writing sessions.

Collectively, we can start engaging and discussing the issues of our time faster than most institutions can move.

I’ll be hosting conversations myself and sharing sessions along the way. Whether you're meeting with friends, colleagues, neighbors, or others, the goal is the same: to connect, explore, and crowdsource our wisdom.

We are releasing the Decentralized Community Project as an open model for all to use. It belongs to everyone, not just to its creators. While our team will be sharing the session plans we develop and inviting others to use them, the true spirit of the project is decentralized: groups, individuals, and communities everywhere are encouraged to adapt, create, and share their own sessions.

The Decentralized Community Project is not affiliated with any organization, denomination, or institution. It is a fully open framework that can be used by anyone — whether you are an individual, a group of friends, a nonprofit, a congregation, a classroom, or a civic group. The model is a shared resource for humanity, offered freely and without formal ties.

Although our team is helping to seed and share the Decentralized Community Project by contributing resources and session plans, we view ourselves as simply one cluster within a much larger, emerging ecosystem. Every participant, group, and contributor is equally part of this unfolding movement. Leadership is distributed, not centralized.

This Substack is the central hub for the Decentralized Community Project’s core resources. Follow along, download resources, contribute ideas, and be part of this growing network of meaningful conversation.

More resources are coming soon, from tips on starting groups to how authors, experts, and organizations can use this model to engage people with the topics they care about.

This is just the beginning. Make sure to subscribe for free updates for more Decentralized Community Project resources.

Want to be part of this decentralized connection and meaning making effort? You’re in! All you have to do is start.

• Subscribe and share resources as they come out.

• Tell someone you know about this project.

• Write a session.

• Gather people to discuss a session.

Again, I’ll share resources and sessions as my group meets, so make sure to subscribe below.

I’m glad you’re here!
—Peter