Introduction and Overview › Glossary for Networking Language · 10 min read
When people open a website, send a message, place an order, or retrieve information, it doesn’t just happen on their own device. While their device displays something, there is usually another computer working in the background that provides the information. This computer is called a server. Simply put, a server is a computer that makes information, applications, and data available to other computers.
When you visit a website, your browser asks this server: Can you show me this page? And the server responds: Yes, here is the information. Almost all digital applications work this way. Even a wiki, an Agora marketplace, or a digital tool for organization and distribution needs a server somewhere to hold and provide the information.
Your device asks, the server responds.
Servers are important because they make shared digital spaces possible. If every person had all the information only on their own device, people could not easily access the same content, tools, or applications together. A server creates a place where information converges and can be used by many people.
You can imagine it like a room where documents are kept. Not every person needs to have the same documents individually at home. Instead, there is a shared place where the documents are kept and where people can view, supplement, or use them. In the digital world, the server takes on this task. It provides what is needed so that many people can work together.
Many digital systems today are built in a centralized way. This means that data, applications, and processes are located in a single large place or with a few large technical entities. Simply put, a lot of digital life is concentrated in a few large spaces. This can be convenient because everything is managed in one place. However, it also means that many people become dependent on exactly this one place.
If this central location fails, becomes unreachable, or is controlled from the outside, it immediately affects many people at once. Then, the ability to act is no longer where the people are working, but with the central structure that enables or restricts access.
Decentralization means that responsibility, knowledge, and infrastructure are not located in just one place. Instead of one large center, there are many independent places that can be connected to each other. Each of these places can operate on its own and at the same time be part of a larger context.
We know this principle well in everyday life. A city does not consist of just one house. A forest does not consist of just one tree. A network does not consist of just one node. Many independent parts together form something larger. That is what decentralization means. It is not about being separate from each other. It is about being connected without becoming completely dependent on a single center.
On the left, everything depends on one center. On the right, many places are connected; if one fails, the network continues.
A decentralized server structure transfers this idea to the digital world. Instead of all information and applications residing on a single server, multiple servers can be connected to each other. Each server can support its own area. At the same time, these servers can communicate, exchange information, and collaborate.
You can imagine it like many libraries. Each library has its own books, its own spaces, and its own responsibilities. If these libraries are connected, a large network of knowledge emerges. No single library needs to contain everything. And yet, people can access a great deal of knowledge. If one library fails or is temporarily unreachable, the other libraries do not automatically disappear.
Digital infrastructure can be thought of in the same way. One server supports one part. Another server supports another part. Together, they form a network.
TEIKEI sees itself as a network of community-supported supply. At the center are farms, communities, pickup points, regional clusters, and people who take responsibility. These structures do not emerge in a single place. They emerge in many regions, in many relationships, and in many specific situations.
Therefore, it makes sense to think of digital infrastructure as a network as well. A community could operate its own digital structure. A farm could run its own instance. A region could operate its own server. These structures could be connected while remaining independent.
The digital architecture would then follow the social architecture. TEIKEI would not only be decentralized and connected in life but also in its digital structure.
You can actually think of source code like a book. There are sentences in it, and these sentences tell a story. When you open the book, you see the letters, the lines, and the context. You can read what is written there. In the simple image, it is the same with code. The code is there. It is written. You can look at it, understand it, modify it, and put it on your own server. Then you can work with it in your browser. This is important to us because it is direct. You don’t need a huge technical environment just to see what is written there. If there is light in the room, you can read the book. If there is no light, you take a lamp, a candle, sunlight, or wait for moonlight. That means: The book remains readable. Access remains simple. The story stays with the people who work with it.
With many more complex technologies, it feels different. You also have a book there. But when you open it, the pages are initially blank. You know there is something in it, but you can’t read it directly. Then you need special filters, special light, a specific lamp, or an additional technical environment just to see what is written there. These filters, these lamps, and these special environments are the dependencies. If you don’t have them, you can’t read the book. If others control them, they also control access to the story. Then you might still own the book, but you can no longer really work with it yourself.
That is what simple server technologies and decentralized server structures are about for us. We don’t just want to own a book. We want to be able to read it. We want to be able to open it. We want to be able to understand what is in it. And we want to be able to use it where the people are: on their own server, in their own region, at a farm, in a community, or in their own Agora marketplace. Digital infrastructure should not be built in such a way that only large technical entities can read, operate, and modify it. It should be built in such a way that communities can support it themselves.
This section describes a future vision (time level: This is how it could become), not the current state.