Communities that do this work before the software is ready will be dramatically better positioned to adopt it effectively — and their real-world experience will directly shape the development.
UNDERSTAND THE ARCHITECTURE
Before anything else, the community's leadership group needs a working understanding of the five systems and how they relate. This does not require reading the full white paper — though that is valuable. It requires understanding what CDS, OAD, ITC, COS, and FRS each do, what data flows between them, and what the feedback loop is supposed to accomplish.
The white paper abstract, the development guide Section 2, and the system pages on this website together provide a sufficient orientation. Plan for a reading group session of two to three hours to work through this material together.
MAP YOUR PRODUCTION CAPACITY
Integral works when communities can produce real goods and services that others in the system need. Before anything can be coordinated through COS, you need to know what your community can actually make, grow, repair, build, or provide — and what you currently need from outside that you might eventually source within the system.
A practical inventory: list every skill, every piece of equipment, every space, every regular production activity in your community. Be specific. "Woodworking" is less useful than "furniture repair and small carpentry up to cabinet-making, two members, one shop with basic power tools." This inventory becomes the starting point for your first OAD design submissions and COS production planning.
PRACTICE CDS-STYLE GOVERNANCE
The Collaborative Decision System's governance model — structured issue capture, deliberation, documented consensus, transparent record — is something communities can begin practicing in their existing decision-making processes, long before any software supports it.
In practice this means: when your community faces a significant decision, write the issue down explicitly before deliberating. Record who participated, what was considered, what was decided, and why. Keep that record accessible. This practice builds both the habits and the institutional memory that CDS is designed to formalize.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PROTO-NODES
Federation requires trust between nodes that precedes the technical infrastructure. The communities that will form the first federation need to know each other, understand each other's capacities and needs, and have some basis for the mutual accountability that federation depends on. This relationship-building cannot be automated or rushed. It requires time and direct engagement.
The Discord #proto-nodes channel is the primary space for proto-node communities to connect. We also encourage direct community-to-community connection — calls, visits, collaborative projects — that builds the human relationships the technical federation will eventually formalize.
ENGAGE WITH THE LEGAL CONTEXT
Early nodes will operate within existing legal frameworks not designed for this kind of organization. Understanding your legal context now — what cooperative incorporation structures are available in your jurisdiction, how ITC-compensated labor might be treated by tax authorities, what property arrangements are available for collectively held resources — will avoid serious problems later.
The project does not yet have comprehensive legal guidance. If you have expertise in cooperative law in your jurisdiction, that expertise is directly needed by the project.