Decentralisation

“The transfer of control of an activity or organization to several local offices or authorities rather than one single one.”

- Oxford Dictionary 5

In a centralised system, all users are connected directly to a central server that contains all data to be distributed, analysed and controlled.

A decentralised system means that users have access to multiple servers that each contain the relevant data. In case of failure at one server there is access to others, and they can be deployed at a more local level.

Decentralisation is closely related to a distributed system where there is no element of centralisation, each user has equal access to data, it is fully democratised.

5 Oxford Lexico, “Decentralisation”, Oxford Lexico. https://bit.ly/3uxuleF

CENTRALISED

DECENTRALISED

Fig. 10: Drawn by author(s) Illustration explaining centralised vs decentralised

Decentralisation is most recognised in the context of power or authority, which is not the whole truth.

Any field can incorporate tools or the mindset of decentralisation. Resources, production, fabrication capacity, finance, design talent and even creativity can be decentralised.

Later in this document [see Proposed Strategy on page 47] an otherwise centralised tracking and planning process will be conceptualised and presented in a decentralised manner.

A, if not the, key tool of decentralisation is blockchain.