Node

A node is a working unit within a stigmergic system, and what defines it is that it splinters rather than grows. The reason is mechanical rather than ideological. Each individual is responsible only for their own work and nobody can direct a group of workers, so expansion means more work for the individual, which is self limiting. As a system grows the additional work requires either additional resources or splintering, and since communication is easier and there is more autonomy in smaller groups, splintering is the more likely outcome. Anyone who lacks the desire or expertise to be a more active part of an existing system will see a different need and start a new node, so growth in a stigmergic system produces multiplicity rather than scale. Communication between nodes runs on an as needed basis. Transparency lets information travel freely, and a formal relationship or communication method is neither necessary nor desirable, since information sharing is driven by the information rather than by personal relationships. Duplication is permitted and is not waste. It is inefficient to have the same task performed twice and that only occurs where a second group has found an alternative method the first will not adopt, in which case the better system wins the most support from the user group and the other dies. Any user can contribute to whichever node best matches their interests and abilities, or to several.

Network theory uses node for any point in a graph and studies degree, centrality and clustering, which is a purely structural usage. Organizational research on cell structures and on decentralized movements describes similar arrangements, with leaderless resistance a term from a very different political tradition describing the same topology. Free software projects fork rather than merge, which is the closest working parallel to Marsh's splintering. Her contribution is the derivation, since most accounts of decentralization argue for it on grounds of resilience or autonomy, whereas she derives the node size from the fact that nobody can direct anyone, which makes small units an arithmetic consequence rather than a design choice.