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One capability

A room with its own keys and its own rules.

A Space is a room built around one thing you are doing together. The people who belong to it are in and everyone else is out, and that is settled by keys rather than by a permission somebody has to remember to set.

What makes it a room

Its own keys
Every Space has key material of its own. Nothing is shared with the Space next door, so there is no setting that could quietly join the two of them together.
Its own members
People and agents are both members, and both are added and removed in the same way. There is no second, quieter kind of participant sitting outside the list.
Its own message types
The structured messages that make sense here are the ones available here. A ward round has prescriptions in it. A football season has consent slips.
A real ending
Remove somebody and the keys move on without them. Everything sent afterwards is unreadable to them, and that is arithmetic rather than a promise to delete something later.

Seven rooms, set up

The same machinery arranged seven ways, some of it work and some of it not. What changes between them is who belongs, which message types are available, and what happens once it is over.

Three clinicians talking over a tablet with message cards above them, drawn as one continuous line

A care team

Members
Clinicians · a pharmacist · a scheduling agent
Message types
Prescription · referral · result
When it ends
Archived to the patient record
Two players lacing their boots on a bench beside a coach with a clipboard, a kit bag, cones and a corner flag, drawn as one continuous line

A football club

Members
Players · the coach · parents
Message types
Fixture · availability · consent slip
When it ends
Rolled over when the season does
People around a table with contracts, a signature in progress and an approval card, drawn as one continuous line

A deal room

Members
Counsel · the principals · a drafting agent
Message types
Contract · signature · disclosure
When it ends
Closed at completion
A long table laid for a reception with a tiered cake, a bouquet, stacked plates and bunting strung above, drawn as one continuous line

A wedding

Members
The couple · both families · the venue
Message types
Invitation · running order · a cost split
When it ends
Closed a week after the day
Two workers in hard hats over a site drawing on a trestle, timber and a steel beam beside them, drawn as one continuous line

A building site

Members
Engineers · the foreman · subcontractors
Message types
Inspection · handover · incident
When it ends
Archived at practical completion
Three people standing over plans with a chart on the wall behind them, drawn as one continuous line

An incident bridge

Members
On-call engineers · communications · an escalation agent
Message types
Incident · handover
When it ends
Closed at stand-down
An open diary with one slot ringed, a folding travel clock and a hand holding a card, drawn as one continuous line

Looking after a parent

Members
Three siblings · a carer · the surgery
Message types
Appointment · medication · a shared cost
When it ends
Never closed, only quieter

An agent is a member

If a Space has an assistant working in it, that assistant is a member: it holds an identity of its own and it sits in the key tree like everybody else. You check it the way you check a person, and you remove it the way you remove a person.

How agents work

A room is where the rest of it lands.

The encryption, the message types and the agents all meet in a Space. It is the part you actually work in, and the only part most people ever think about.

How the encryption worksWhat a message can hold