A hundred million members. And no one will ever experience the mass.
Scale is not capacity. A hundred million names on a list is a crowd — not a hundred million people able to act. What turns one into the other is depth. UP's answer: no member ever experiences being one of a hundred million. They will belong to a community of a few hundred peers who share their field; to spaces hosted by institutions they already belong to; and, if they choose that depth, to a team of about twelve people in their own neighbourhood.
The mass will exist; the experience of mass will not.
Four kinds of Circle, one lattice.
Four distinct places where the work happens — not a hierarchy — joined by shared DNA: the same monthly CONNECT rhythm, the same ACE method, the same governance, the same Tenets. Counts below are active Circles under the Medium scenario, at the two horizons.
Fixed by design — one for each major field of human progress. They develop the Missions for their domain; they do not create Projects directly. The civilisational frame.
Specialist communities of practice nested within a GlobalCircle, translating its Missions into programmes of work. They expand fractally — a finite set of foundational themes spawning ever more specific ones.
Institutional hosts — universities, corporations, cities, NGOs, faith communities and startups, each running its work inside UP. Hosting is free: a shared operating layer for the institutional landscape, not a rival to it.
Small, self-organising neighbourhood teams capped at about twelve members — completely autonomous of the GlobalCircles. They choose their own work, in their own place, under their own name. The legitimacy anchor.
Active-Circle design specifications · Medium scenario · Y10 ≈ 2035, Y20 ≈ 2045
Every field of human progress. By design.
Exactly fifteen GlobalCircles, fixed by design — together they cover every field in which this decade makes its demands, so the work of one is never cut off from the others it depends on. Three open at D-Day; all fifteen within two years. Select any domain to read what it looks after and its illustrative Missions.
Colour & icon scheme, roles and Missions from the UP HUB working demo (Due Diligence Book §6.1) · D-Day marks the three GlobalCircles that launch first
Everything in the lattice exists to produce one thing.
A Project is UP's basic unit — a specific piece of work with a deadline, defined results, a responsible Circle, a named sponsor, and a tracked contribution to one or more Missions. A discussion is not a Project; a meeting is not a Project. Without Projects, UnitedPeoples is a discussion forum — which is why every Circle, of every kind, must keep at least one Project live at all times.
Mission-driven · top-down
A GlobalCircle sets its domain's Missions; the ThemedCircles and BrandedCircles within it turn those Missions into Projects. Strategy sets the frame and learns from the results.
Place-driven · bottom-up
Self-governing LocalCircles choose their own neighbourhood work and tag each Project to the Circles it touches — so local action, chosen entirely by the people doing it, teaches the institution what its Missions have not yet named.
Projects come in three Types — Member-Owned Initiatives, a member's own venture or initiative; Third-Party Collaborations, work done with outside institutions; and Addressing Unmet Needs, the gap no one else is filling — and every Circle runs all three over time.
One HUB, four scales.
Every Circle in UnitedPeoples runs on the same HUB, and what changes between them is the scale. These four screens belong to one member, Erin, in Amsterdam, five years in, and they show the same morning in 2032 in the four Circles she belongs to: her GlobalCircle, a ThemedCircle, her employer's BrandedCircle and her street.
The workspace is the same in all four, but her role in each is different. Tap a marker, or a tag under the screen, to look closer.
Illustrative · 2032
The UP HUB as we imagine it in 2032. The architecture is designed; the members, Circles and Projects you'll meet are illustrative.Erin hereA member, carrying her Promise: in five years, her street feeds itself.
Ten and a half million people
A GlobalCircle is one of fifteen, one for each field of human progress, and this one, Sustainability Climate & Food, has ten and a half million members. It is the largest room in UnitedPeoples, and it runs on exactly the same HUB as a street of twelve neighbours.
Three of these Circles have a use case of their own — PartnerCo, Urban Food Rescue and De Pijp — and each opens in the demonstration at the door of the same Circle
Three Circles, five years in.
The four types above are the architecture. These are the same types as a member lives them in 2032 — a company, a neighbourhood and a field, each a community first and a Project board second, each one click from the HUB as the working demonstration shows it. Illustrative throughout: the architecture is designed; the members, Circles and Projects are imagined.
BrandedCircle · Business & Social Economics · Amsterdam
A company that talks in its Circle.
Read the use case →LocalCircle · Amsterdam
Twelve neighbours, a kitchen, one seat kept open.
Read the use case →ThemedCircle · Sustainability Climate & Food
A field's commons, and it talks all day.
Read the use case →The ecosystem is vast. Your week is a handful of communities you know by name.
A typical member's footprint: three or four GlobalCircles whose Missions they care about, several ThemedCircles where their expertise lives, one or two BrandedCircles tied to the institutions of their working life — and, if they choose that depth, one LocalCircle of about twelve people in their neighbourhood. A LocalCircle is optional, never assigned at joining; roughly a quarter of members are expected to choose it over time.
The member's rhythm — CONNECT, ACE & THRIVE