Dave Snowden, picking up on a question posed on an email list about whether all networks were communities blogged a set of assertions about networks and complexity.

His assertions are very similar to those that I outline in Net Work:

1. If it’s a network, you can draw it.
2. Every network has an underlying purpose and every network creates value.
3. We can create a language of networks that enables us to identify, create, and alter its properties, boundaries, and environment.
4. We can approach working with networks by understanding them as complex systems.
5. Everyone in a network can influence the relationships in it and its outcomes.
6. Norms, especially reciprocity and trust, are required for networks to be successful.
7. Success networks are generative and reflective.
8. All networks are alike (have the same fundmental discernible properties) and all networks are unique (in how they express those properties)