already doing already

something

multisig

No system will be neutral, but designers can set out to make it as pliable as possible, avoiding the temptation to simply replicate the architecture of the computer or the culture of its builders in the design of social spaces.

Its hiccups often seem to remind students why they prefer systems that powerful companies manage for the price of their data.

gvoernance

rolls

his

play

beginning infiltrate

exactly what investors want to avoid paying for in their pursuit of scalability and market dominance

“Is This Model Right for You Checklist” from the Creative Interventions Toolkit

Online spaces need abolitionist imaginations

For democracy to thrive its institutions must be vulnerable to continual reinvention. Its traditions must be alive enough to permit that

racialized minorities as “the miner’s canary”—people whose experiences represent early warnings for social problems poised to affect everyone else

In 1995

China’s achievements in human development are historically unprecedented. Under our system my generation has thrived, and is far more positive and forward-looking compared to our peers worldwide. There may be a “perfect” model of democracy that you have in mind, but democracy as practised throughout most of history is best described as corrosive and sclerotic. One need only contrast the state of American and Chinese infrastructure to arrive at this conclusion.

Rather than flame wars, technologies might thereby encourage the art of consensus-making, as brown teaches in Emergent Strategy. They might enable movements to persist and evolve, rather than disappearing into the next viral moment.

Until we have some sense of how to live our solutions locally, we won’t be successful at implementing a just governance system regionally, nationally, or globally

other kinds of lessons, seeking other forms of salvation

its history and progeny alike

but adopters have decoded meanings very much their own, which become new encodings in turn

“These tools are often blunt and senseless”

Albert O. Hirschman predicted that while exit-based organizational logic excels in producing variety, choice, and innovation, voice-based logic confers greater commitment and stability. A study of the GameCenter online community, for instance, observed that when the platform’s “benevolent dictator” became less active over time, subgroups developed unexpected resilience.104

derives

Conway’s Law

The company shrugged, called the vote “advisory,” and proceeded with the rule change as it saw fit.

Progenitors: BBS, Usenet, and e-mail lists

elevating messages to the top of a group’s feed

“rape in cyberspace,” a prolonged case of sexual assault

exit

digital economy

Corporations found benefits in encouraging centralized control among user communities

habit more than of malice

effective from affective voice

had only a single board member

Democracy as a design practice

.

I hope to provoke a more widespread recognition that the design of everyday self-governance in online spaces matters

sensual

Democratic erosion

What happens online is terrible and wonderful; I love my favorite online haunts. If I criticize our networks as they are, it is because I see glimpses of what they could become. Our networks are spaces we have still only begun to co-create and self-govern, and thus to inhabit fully.

For instance, communities seeking to challenge anti-democratic power should cultivate democratic practices, including through intentional choices about their social technologies.