diff --git a/docs/index.md b/docs/index.md
index 29b8ea4..26c050e 100644
--- a/docs/index.md
+++ b/docs/index.md
@@ -4,4 +4,4 @@ The future of self-governance is being made today. What tools do we have to work
 
 <div id="pullquote">Democratic Mediums is a directory of patterns for decision, deliberation, and noise.</div>
 
-This is an early-stage project that is mostly incomplete. Browse some sample entries: [Board](mediums/board.md), [Bureaucracy](mediums/bureaucracy.md), [Condorcet](mediums/condorcet.md), [Delegation](mediums/delegation.md), [Ownership](mediums/ownership.md), [Ritual](mediums/ritual.md), [Sortition](mediums/sortition.md).
+This is an early-stage project that is mostly incomplete. Browse some sample entries: [Board](mediums/board.md), [Bureaucracy](mediums/bureaucracy.md), [Condorcet](mediums/condorcet.md), [Delegation](mediums/delegation.md), [Federation](mediums/federation.md), [Ownership](mediums/ownership.md), [Ritual](mediums/ritual.md), [Sortition](mediums/sortition.md).
diff --git a/docs/mediums/federation.md b/docs/mediums/federation.md
index 0edd3cf..d154bfe 100644
--- a/docs/mediums/federation.md
+++ b/docs/mediums/federation.md
@@ -1,3 +1,50 @@
 # Federation
 
-<!--Lightning Network as proposed implementation-->
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+Federation is the principle of connecting smaller, partially self-governing units through a central unit that manages shared resources among them and powers over them. It generally seeks to create a multi-layer architecture in which authority lies at the most appropriate level.
+
+Federal*ism* is generally associated with calls for a stronger central authority.
+
+Federation and confederation are sometimes distinguished, wherein federation is a system where sovereignty lies chiefly in the central unit (such as the US federal government), while in a confederation sovereignty is understood to lie with the constiuent units (such as the European Union).
+
+**Input:** constituent units, central unit, contracts among them
+
+**Output:** cohesion, multi-layered authority structure
+
+## Background
+
+Federated structures have been widespread in various forms of government, as well as in private enterprise. Early examples include the pre-Columbian Haudenosaunee Confederation (or Iroquois Confederacy), followed by post-colonial formations in the Americas such as the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
+
+In the private sector, cooperative businesses frequently form federations, which are typically second-order co-ops (or nonprofit associations) whose constiuent members are smaller cooperatives or non-cooperative businesses.
+
+Federation may be considered an implementation of the philosophical concept of subsidarity, which holds that power should reside as locally as possible to the relevant context.
+
+## Feedback loops
+
+### Sensitivities
+
+* Balance between local governance and economies of scale
+
+### Oversights
+
+* Can exact high costs of governance among autonomous constituent units
+
+## Implementations
+
+### Communities
+
+* Cooperative federations, such as Confcooperative in Italy and US "generation and transmission" electric cooperatives
+* Governments in many countries
+
+In fiction:
+
+* [United Federation of Planets](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets) in the Star Trek franchise
+
+### Tools
+
+* [Fediverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse), a set of interoperable federated social networks using software such as Mastodon, GNU Social, and Pleroma
+* [Lightning Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network), a scalability solution for blockchain systems that dynamically delegates authority to clusters of trusting nodes
+
+## Further resources
+
+* Ilten, Carla. "[Finding “meso-level” community at SASE 2017](https://organizationaldynamics.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/finding-meso-level-community-at-sase-2017/). 
+Center on Organizational Dynamics. January 10, 2018.
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diff --git a/docs/mediums/holographic_consensus.md b/docs/mediums/holographic_consensus.md
index 0f56645..0c34fc5 100644
--- a/docs/mediums/holographic_consensus.md
+++ b/docs/mediums/holographic_consensus.md
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 # Holographic consensus
 
-<!--- via DAOstack -->
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+<!--- via DAOstack -->
+<!--- perhaps a form of federation? -->
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