Grassroots-Organizing

Three Rules for Building a Network That Survives

I have built networks under conditions that made failure fatal. Not metaphorically fatal. My network’s failure – the discovery of a contact, the interception of a message, the compromise of a safe house – meant execution. Mine, and the people connected to me.

Under these conditions, you learn to build differently. You learn to build for the failure you have not yet imagined, because the failures you can imagine are the ones your adversary can imagine too.

The Safe House Was a Kitchen Table

I want to correct a misconception about networks that has become pervasive in the digital age. The misconception is that networks are technological.

They are not. Networks are human. Technology is a tool that networks use, but the network itself – its resilience, its capacity, its trustworthiness – is a function of the human relationships at its core.

I know this because every network I built was centered on a kitchen table.