Why

As a species, we stand at the edge of extinction due to human-induced metacrises caused by our inability to cooperate across differences. The ability to reliably self-govern/cooperate across difference could unleash our capacity to solve these crises and create a thriving planet. And we are not alone in identifying the significance of this potential. This holy grail of unlocking our capacity to self-organize as a species has so much potential that the last decade has seen an explosion of interest in and experiments with new forms of governance: from the teal organizations' movement to the technical world of DAOs, to solutions for conventional polarized politics, to online platform management, to multipolar geopolitics, to the question of AI alignment. However, we are largely pioneering this work in silos.

Even for those of us who are interested in collaborating, the way to do so is unclear since our missions diverge. For example, just to focus on the organizations most closely connected to what we are proposing, please see the table linked here:

Closely related organizations

While each of these prodigious and important efforts is furthering the movement toward better self-governance, we intend to offer the civic innovation of a means of integrating the plurality of research and practice into open standards for self-governance supported by digital technology in a coordinative platform. This we offer as an ‘orgware’ initiative, complementary to each organization’s software development initiatives, to encode alignment and streamline collaboration. With this self-governance commons we can actualize the accumulated wisdom into an accessible means for cooperating across difference at scale. So you can see in the above chart's last line how this effort compares.

What

This convening of aligned stakeholders around a governance commons aims to increase collaboration between projects and build tools and infrastructure for collaboration grounded in the recognition that an ecology of practices for effective self-governance is itself a commons and as such needs governing as a commons by:

• synthesizing our learning and research into an integrated operating system of best practices for self-organization (orgware) for offline and online use; and
• publishing this structured methodology that integrates our diverse efforts while honoring our sovereignty; and
• implementing the system via a coordinative platform that enables global coordination in service of a thriving planet; and
• evolving the operating system/orgware through using the tools in the commons and by conducting further research.

As experienced technologists we have converged on the need for an increase in coherence that an integration of research and practice could generate—better orgware. By articulating open standards into a streamlined coordinative platform, we will facilitate better training and more meaningful social connections across existing platforms and protocols.

For examples, see the table linked here: Software components, functions, and solutions

How

This project is building upon twelve years of research focused on questions around healthy power sharing into organizational and individual development that has been integrated into an ecology of practices (orgware) called Collab and implemented in a wide range of organizations from colleges to coops and community organizations to banks. Research is ongoing and Collab has been through three formal evolutions so far with input from users. The success of this work has inspired the launch of the self-governance commons based on the recognition that any such orgware belongs to humanity as a whole and should be evolved into the future by a commons. Please see the tables linked below for summaries of methodologies and theories integrated to date.

Methodologies Integrated

Theories Integrated

Going forward, we propose the creation of an ongoing symposia process characterized by multiple interrelated, simultaneously offered, opportunities in which to engage multiple networks indefinitely in the process of evolving a set of open self-governance standards. Please see table linked below for a preliminary list of candidates for connecting in the first stages of network building.

Preliminary List of Candidates for the Network

Who

This convening is being called by:

Cecile Green is a visionary, entrepreneur, homesteader and builder with a passion for researching practices for healthy shared power. As an integral scholar-practitioner and life long learner, she holds a B.S. in Community Supported Agricultural Systems from UMass Amherst and three decades of experience in entrepreneurial environments. As the innovator of Collab, an ecology of practices for effective power sharing, she has researched and experimented with questions of human social power, systems of decision-making, and efficient operations in both academic and applied contexts, and is the author of the book “Collaboration that Works: A Ruthlessly Practical Handbook for a Generative World,” a training manual which summarizes her research and introduces these tools for practical application in organizations. She is the co-founder of Round Sky Solutions, a worker coop, and instructor for the Cooperative Leadership Certification Program. Her academic publications include “The Organizational Power Matrix: Toward a Metapraxis of Power” (2013, Journal of Integral Theory and Practice) and “Instantiating a Global Governance Commons” (in publication 2024, Journal of Archdisciplinary Studies).

Cecile was raised in Istanbul Turkey for 10 years as a child where she learned French in an embassy school and spent hours exploring ancient ruins and the waters of the Aegean. In her spare time, she enjoys the wilds of Vermont, dancing, and building community through growing food together.

Website: https://www.roundskysolutions.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilegreen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoundSkys

Dr. Seth Frey is a professor in Communication at the University of California Davis, an affiliate of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, and a Research Director at Metagov.org. He specializes in computational institutional science, using online communities as model systems for emergent institutional and organizational phenomena, particularly commons management.

Seth is also an organizer for the cooperative movement, with 20 years of experience developing intentional communities and transitioning them into collective ownership.

Seth earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Informatics (complex systems) at Indiana University in 2013, and a B.A. in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. He was a behavioral economist at Disney Research in Walt Disney Imagineering. His research has appeared in PNAS, Nature Scientific Reports, and Proceedings of the Royal Society. It has been funded by the NSF, NASA, and the Ford Foundation.

Website: https://enfascination.com Research: https://enfascination.com/research Twitter: https://twitter.com/enfascination LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enfascination/

Dounia Saeme, MA, polyglot citizen of the world, is a renegade economist and a passionate facilitator of commoning for the common good.

In 2016, while pursuing her PhD in Economics at UC Berkeley, Dounia recognized the need to break free from ubiquitous life-disconnected cultural patterns. Showing great courage, she decided to leave her PhD and embark on an experiential learning journey figuring out how to gracefully face the complex challenges of our time.

Currently, as ProSocial World’s Community Catalyst, she dances with theory and practice, weaves science and spirituality in service cross-network collaboration and creates authentic environments for transformative action.

As a free migrant, she is now growing cosmo-local roots on the unceded Mi'kmaq territory of Southwest Nova Scotia where she loves to live with her family, grow food for her community, go on nature adventures and make functional art with natural fibers. She loves bees and dreams with them.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsaeme/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/daonia_

Dr. Charles (Charlie) Schweik is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation and School of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Director of the all-campus Information Technology Program at UMass. He is also the current President of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). In the area of Commons and Commoning, he specializes in the Knowledge Commons area and has studied Commons-based Peer Production for over 25 years. Among other writings, he is the author of the open-access book Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software Commons, available at https://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/29/ and has active research studying how nonprofit organizations like the Apache Software Foundation are working to help sustain open source software commons. He leads another Knowledge Commons project called World Librarians where open-access information is provided to offline rural schools in countries like Malawi. Charlie earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy at Indiana University in 1998, has a Masters in Public Administration from Syracuse University and holds a B.A. in Computer Science from SUNY Potsdam.

Websites: https://charlieschweik.org/; https://eco.umass.edu/people/faculty/schweik-charles-m/; https://www.umass.edu/spp/people/faculty/charles-schweik LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-schweik-9939b7267/

Long-term Impact on Civics

We intend to enable effective global self-governance as demonstrated by the increase in thrive-ability of our planet and all its creatures including humans.

Milestones

Phase 1: For this initial funding round where we are anticipating 3-7K in grants

1. The publication of a call to action with symposia details
2. Running of an initial pilot/proof of concept with 12 people or less to test the symposia process
3. The evolution of the symposia process based on our experience during the trial
4. Grant writing for a second trial

Phase 2:

1. Scheduling and hosting of a second larger trial
2. Publication of second trial results including further evolution of the symposia process
3. Participation in a conference track at the IASC 2025 conference
4. The speccing of the coordinative platform based on the emerging open standards
5. Grant writing/Fundraising for phase 3

Phase 3:

1. The creation of the initial aspects of a coordinative platform focused on enabling the symposia process to reach a larger audience
2. The activation of the ongoing, asynchronous symposia
3. Grant writing/Fundraising for phase 4

Phase 4:

1. Core elements of the open standards are clarified
2. Coordinative platform informed by those open standards constructed