I’m very excited to see this thread, as it is core to my own interests. Last year a group of us set up the Planetmakers project and applied for the €1 million EU prize, Blockchains for Social Good. Holo was a core partner, and we had a MoU with Holo for this. Of course we didn’t win, but I think we moved our ideas along very strongly, and that is what I want to share with you here.
Our starting point was the kind of society we wanted to create, and for this we built on commons principles (from Eleanor Estrom) and viable systems, and from this, derive the kinds of software that would be needed by a community. We didn’t want users to need to understand the theory. We came up with 5 core areas that are self-explanatory (if you know about viable systems, you should be able to see the link):
1 - Synergy: The overall vision is of a community working together for mutual benefit. Synergy in practice is offers and wants, combining doing favours for each other and also exchange using money, both fiat and mutual credit. This is the central, everyday part of the community. It includes offering lots of social events to build community. (And here is where much of Guillem’s initial list comes in, plus of course Tom’s comments.)
2 - WhoWeAre: We envisage not a marketplace of strangers out for their own interests, but a commons-style community which clearly identifies those who support it and work for mutual benefit, on a basis of trust. We imagine various levels of participation, from very casual to highly involved, with an ethos that those that contribute the most get priority on receiving. This creates the boundaries of the group (but isn’t rigid). (So here is where Josh’s ideas of persona management come in, plus reputation, plus profiles that include values).
3.Commons: The vision is of local self-governance, but with coordination at various levels. The Commons area is where groups spell out their common values, rules, principles, with discussion and voting on local requirements. This is perfect for the kind of distributed internet that Holo makes possible. We are discussing setting up pilots in several places, that will include setting up local community servers for local communications tools as the basis of self-governance. We will start with existing open source software and move towards Holo-based solutions as they are ready. (I’m sure this will resonate with Grace’s work.)
4.Peacemaking: We want our commons-based community to be stable, so we need to be able to handle differences and conflicts constructively. We commissioned one of our number to build a peacemaking pattern language, which will include communications skills and ways of handling conflict.
5.Direction: We imagine the local community commons working together at larger scales, for mutual benefit and to share a larger perspective and help each other to move forward. (Again, lots of resonances with Grace.)
So, I will keep checking on this thread. Perhaps we can have some regular video conferences so we get to know each other and to help us build momentum.
