The Starfish and the Spider is an entertaining exploration of centralized vs decentralized approaches in organizations. The title's metaphor is intended to highlight the differences in concepts - though a starfish and a spider have similar shapes, their internal structure is quite different, and so are their capabilities as a result. A decapitated spider inevitably dies, while a starfish can regenerate itself from a single amputated leg. Similarly, decentralized organizations are made up of many smaller units, each capable of operating and growing independently of each other. This makes it very difficult for a competing force to control or defeat them.

How do you tell if you're dealing with a distributed organization or a centralized one? The authors suggest asking several questions:

• Who is in charge?
• Is there a headquarters?
• If you thump it on the head, does it die?
• Is there a clear division of roles?
• If you take out a unit, is the organization harmed?
• Are knowledge and power concentrated or distributed?
• Where does funding come from?
• Can you count the participants?

Many examples are used in the book to make this point, and are as diverse as Ebay, Skype, Craigslist, the Apache indians, and Al-Quida. The rules of this new game are as follows: Read more »