This pap er introduces a normative principle for the behaviour of
contemporary computing and communication systems and considers some
of its consequences. The principle, named the principle of
distribution, says that in a distributed multi-agent system control
resides as much as possible with the individuals constituting the
system, rather than in centralised agents; and when that is infeasible
or becomes inappropriate due to environmental changes, control
evolves upwards from the individuals to an appropriate intermediate
level rather than b eing imp osed from above.  The setting for the
work is the dynamically changing global space resulting from
ubiquitous communication. Accordingly the paper begins by
determining the characteristics of the distributed multi-agent space
it spans. It then fleshes out the principle of distribution, with
examples from daily life as well as from Computer Science. The case is
made for the principle of distribution to work at various levels of
abstraction of system behaviour: to inform the high-level discussion
that ought to precede the more low-level concerns of technology,
protocols and standardisation but also to facilitate those lower
levels.  Of the more substantial applications of the principle of
distribution, a technical example concerns the design of secure ad
hoc networks of mobile devices, achievable without any form of
centralised authentication or identication, but in a solely
distributed manner. Here the context is how the principle can be used
to provide new and provably secure protocols for genuinely ubiquitous
communication. A second--more managerial--example concerns the
distributed production and management of op en source software, and a
third investigates some pertinent questions involving the dynamic
restructing of control in distributed systems, important in times of
disaster or malevolence.