OVN governance bodies
Part of organizational structure
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Contents
Levels of affiliation
NOTE: This is the second proposed structure, which is an improvement from the First structure proposed. |
Affiliation is the relation that an agent maintains with the other agents, seen as a network or as a community. Levels of affiliation refers to the degree of integration or separation between the agent and the rest of AFFILIATEs, seen as a network or as a community. Levels of affiliation are, in some sense, similar to membership levels on online platforms, which are defined by permissions and privileges, responsibilities and/or obligations and by a given integration or access process. Levels of affiliation are irrespective of the role one plays in the network. They are a function of involvement and reputation.
UNAFFILIATED
Agents (individuals or organizations) that do not take part in activities in any way, but might have access to public information about the OVN and observe it from a distance. These are individuals who have heard about the OVN or who are susceptible to respond to information about the OVN. The unAFFILIATEs are anonymous or unknown by OVN AFFILIATEs. However, they can be recognized as a class of individuals with general characteristics that can be revealed by a survey and statistical analysis.
Privileges and permissions: Only have access to public information through the OVN’s website and social media channels.
Responsibilities, obligations: NON
Integration process: Anyone out there is unAFFILIATEd
Close AFFILIATE
Agents (individuals or organizations) that have not contributed to OVN’s ventures in a tangible way, or their contributions are not concrete enough to be taken into consideration by the network resource planning and contribution accounting system (NRP-CAS), or have contributed but do not want to be involved directly. If the individual or organization records a contribution in the NRP-CAS he/she/it becomes an active AFFILIATE (see below). Close AFFILIATEs follow OVN’s activities regularly for different reasons and are recognized by active AFFILIATEs (see below) within the OVN. They are close AFFILIATEs, i.e. are known by some AFFILIATEs, they are not anonymous.
Permissions and privileges: Can have access to the OVN’s database, main communications channels, and to some activities like meetings and presentations.
Responsibilities, obligations: Respect the OVN’s assets and its AFFILIATEs.
Integration process: Anyone can become a close AFFILIATE, or an observer. The individual or the organization must only talk to at least one AFFILIATE or active AFFILIATE of the OVN. The entire OVN must be informed of new close AFFILIATE. To become a close AFFILIATE one needs to contact the community or an OVN AFFILIATE. The close AFFILIATE can also follow the OVN’s activities on wiki, Facebook, Github, ...
Active AFFILIATE
Any agent (individual or organization) who makes positive contributions to the OVN (i.e. increases the potential of the OVN by helping to sustain and to improve the OVN’s image, infrastructure, market value of products by OVN’s ventures, or any other possible ways) is considered an active AFFILIATE. Positive contributions are partially defined by a network-wide decision, formalized within the Network Governance document, and partially defined by ventures part of the OVN, formalized in the Venture governance document (see one template). Moreover, they must be recorded in the OVN’s NRP-CAS[1], must be associated with sufficient documentation that is necessarily stored in the OVN’s commons repository, and must be validated[2] by other AFFILIATEs who operate in the same context (network level or venture level).
Permissions and privileges: Have access to the OVN’s infrastructure (physical and virtual) by the nondominium and the CUSTODIAN agreement, to the OVN’s production, dissemination and distribution assets, to governance and decision making.
Responsibilities, obligations: Active AFFILIATEs must adhere to the principles behind the contribution accounting system. They must abide by the rules stipulated in the Network Governance document.
Integration process: To become an active AFFILIATE contact the community or an OVN AFFILIATE. Active AFFILIATEs may have a profile on the OVN’s website and are listed in the AFFILIATE registry at this address http://nrp.sensorica.co/accounting/agents / Individuals. You only become an active AFFILIATE based on the conditions above.
Core AFFILIATE
Is an active AFFILIATE with some limited power of representation and special decision making abilities, granted by the Network Governance or the Venture governance, depending at which level we apply this concept, through a Benefit Redistribution algorithm.
The core group, at a particular moment in time, is the group of core AFFILIATEs, i.e. individuals that are top contributors to the network of or to a venture, taken in decreasing order of their individual time contributions, together making up to 20% of total contributions to the initiative, at the same moment in time.
inactive AFFILIATE
Individuals or organizations that have already contributed to the OVN in the past (meaning that their contributions have been recorded in the OVN’s NRP-CAS, but have become inactive, or have expressed their willingness to contribute to OVN’s ventures but have not contributed with anything meaningful/tangible yet. Inactive AFFILIATEs have more potential for creation or production for the OVN than close AFFILIATEs, in that they have been or will be involved in some activities, and maintain strong relations with some active AFFILIATEs.
Permissions and privileges: Have access to nonpublic OVN information. Can participate in some activities like meetings and presentations. Have access to some or all OVN’s communication systems. Participate in some decision making processes.
Responsibilities, obligations: Respect OVN’s assets and AFFILIATEs.
Integration process: To regain the status of an active AFFILIATE resume contributions to the OVN.
Partnership
A network Partner is an individual or an organization that doesn’t operate within the network’s environment but endeavors to influence development within the network or to further the agenda of network AFFILIATEs. A Partner uses its own resources and processes to perform activities and it is not subject to the network’s governance. The Partnership relationship is essentially one of coordination of activities with network AFFILIATEs, perhaps in the context of a venture or a project.
A Partner may use the network’s commons and shared resources to conduct its activities, if permission is granted by network AFFILIATEs, which is subject to an evaluation of the degree of alignment in objectives or goals. A Partner may also use the network’s infrastructure or interface with it as much as it is required to efficiently perform work that advances the shared agenda.
Sister networks
Sister networks are networks that share a great deal of architecture with Sensorica and that maintain a meaningful relation with Sensorica through formal bridges. There are established flows between sister networks, often sustained by infrastructure components.
Background
During 2020 Tibi started to push more clearly building formal bridges between Sensorica and other open networks and communities. A formal bridge is a piece of infrastructure that establishes flows between two networks, without human intervention. Formal bridges are interfaces between open networks. In 2021, during interactions with TaoDao in the context of Wealth Transfer weekly gatherings the term wormhole was used to describe these formal bridges that allow agents to transport themselves from one network to another one. The Ecosystem tab was created on the new Sensorica website.
Formal affiliation
Becoming an OVN active AFFILIATE consists of a mutual and explicit agreement to the principles, guidelines and rules of the OVN. These can be considered a "Terms of Participation" (ToP) of the commons of the OVN. This Terms of Participation currently consists of:
- reading and acknowledging the AFFILIATE Handbook
- reading and acknowledging the Nondominium & Custodian agreement
- signing the "Acknowledgement of (knowledge) commons" agreement for contributions
- signing the "Contributor License Agreement"[3]
AFFILIATE registration
Upon (or before) reviewing and affirming the relevant documents, prospective AFFILIATEs will be invited to:
- engage in conversation with multiple active AFFILIATEs
- collaborate with other AFFILIATEs to provide background information, work samples, written documentation
- review the public knowledge base(s)
- fill out a personal questionnaire
- initiate an AFFILIATE profile' page / map
Value and structure
The flow of resources within a social system determines its structure - roles, rules, processes, and vice versa. Resources are valuable for people and incentivise action. Collective action exhibits emergent behavior, finds ways to become effective and efficient, if submitted urgencies or to competitive pressures. In other words, structure emerges in collective action incentivised by resources, which is also determined by physical conditions that affect the flow of resources.
The flow of resources is not entirely up to people. There are material conditions that determine how resources can flow. For example, sunlight is equally accessible to anyone on the planet (making abstraction of the North-South position and local climate conditions). Access to petrol is not evenly distributed to all people. That is primarily because its extraction from the ground requires large efforts that can only be deployed by groups of individuals, organizations, that are subject to rights, rules and regulations by institutions.
What comes first, the organizational structure of a value system or a role system? Before mapping human relations, processes, stakeholders one needs to map value. In doing so, one needs to take into consideration that value is subjective. Some things are concrete, as food for example, but others aren't (this is how dark cults and sects trap people in for example, by creating value systems on which they build value networks, which are their organizations of foolish people giving up their assets and time for illusory value). The first step is to map value sources and to describe the processes needed to get to them, and to exchange value. Sometimes the options for processes are limited, based on the nature of that value, on context, technology available, etc. For example, if value is gold 1000 feet underground in a primitive society, the only way to get to it is through manual labor and some form of collaboration, including slavery. On the other side, artists tend to form decentralized/flat organizations, not hierarchies. They exchange percepts, they trade social favors, which is not very labor and resource intensive. They don't need to organize themselves like gold miners. The value and the processes to get to it determine the relations humans form among themselves, in a given context. If we think of self-organizing and dynamic organizations (we like to call these value networks) we need to put value first and roles and relations after.
Structure by role
General considerations about roles
OVNs don’t have a predefined structure. Roles must be emergent and fluid. Circumstances define functional roles. As conditions change the organization reconfigures itself. The OVN will mold to changing patterns underlying our society and our economy.
We need some level of legibility to connect different OVNs into larger networks. This connection is first established at the level of the value system, to allow an unhindered flow of resources between all the sub-networks. Information must also flow freely within the larger network, therefore some level of standardization is required. Participants must be able to easily navigate from one sub-network to another, and retain their ability to contribute rapidly and effortlessly. In other words, the accommodation time and the learning curve must be reduced. But we also need to realize that there is a price to pay for too much legibility, as Venkatesh brilliantly points out (see this short video).
How are we going to induce self-organization? What guarantees temporal stability? How can we make sure that emergent patterns optimize creativity and productivity? How can we make sure that the outcome will be a humane and ethical environment? I put all my faith into the human being.
We can share the belief that humans are capable of spontaneously creating stable social patterns if their goals are aligned and if they know how to achieve their goals. We don't need to create a structure, we only need to create the conditions for the structure to emerge and to evolve. By putting in place feedback mechanisms based on data analysis and visualization, we can guide self-organization towards the best possible outcomes.
This structure is emergent, dynamic, plastic.
Roles are not predefined, they are emergent patterns of behavior of AFFILIATEs within the community, see below.
The Role system feeds itself from the task management system (at this moment it gets information from logged activities in the NRP). A role is not assigned to an AFFILIATE, it is rather “earned” through past activities. If an AFFILIATE voluntarily subscribes to engineering tasks and delivers, this AFFILIATE will earn the role of a technical person within the value network.
Over the years, we’ve observed the reoccurrence of a number of roles, see table.
Role name | Description | Profile | Responsability |
Administrator | Performs administrative tasks, high-level coordination, relations with third parties, agreements, etc. Operates at the project level and network level. | Process oriented, detail oriented, bureaucrat, responsible, masters the organizational architecture | Work at the organizational level. Set up expectations, fulfill everyone's expectations, including partners and third parties, maintain relations. |
Ambassador | Helps with communication and dissemination of activities and results, is a translator and forwards information about activities and results. There can be many ambassadors, in different fields or domains, all knowledgeable about the network's activities, able to translate and further information to their specific domains. Operates at the project level and network level. | Good reputation, public figure, communications skills, specialist | Spread the mission, vision and ethos, disseminate important information, build and maintain relations with third parties and partners. |
Animator Event | Focused on experience, facilitates conversations, keeps everyone interested and excited. Animator - gives anima (=soul) to the initiative or event. Promotes a vision, creates purpose, instigates activities, rituals, creates and develops social bonds, etc. | Sociable, sensitive and empathic, experience-oriented, trustworthy | Build an event animation plan that corresponds with the nature of the event. |
Animator Network | Gives soul to the network, promotes a vision, creates purpose, instigates activities, creates and develops social bonds, etc. Operates at the project level and network level. | Sociable, sensitive and empathic, experience-oriented, trustworthy | Build an animation strategy and plan for the project or network, leverage important events, milestones, design rituals. Execute the plan. |
Capacity builder | Network weaving - reinforcing connections through passionate and empathic relations. Onboard individuals into a cognitive structure. Not a goal-oriented activity, just building latent potential for whatever action might precipitate in the future. Work is not documented and has no deliverables. Different from network animation, which is to give vitality to a specific action. Deal with churn. Maintain critical mass, in synergy with animators, facilitators and coordinators. | A more strategic role than "Connector". | |
Connector | Builds new relations with people outside of the zone of influence of the network, with third parties. Operates at the project level and network level. | Sociable, trusted, nomad | Match individuals with similar skills, needs and offers. Build relations. A less strategic role than "Capacity builder". |
Coordinator | Planning, agenda keeping, attentive to relations between processes and time dependencies. Operates at the project level and network level. | Organizer and planner, fixer (identify and eliminate roadblocks and bottlenecks) | Maintain planning tools and content, make sure that everyone knows where everyone else is going, build stigmergic capacity (proximal signaling), plan and make sure activity is on track. |
Facilitator | Help with Infrastructure or tools, governance and methodologies, makes sure that everything is running smoothly | Helper, process oriented, empathic (sensitive to others' needs) | Maintain documentation about tools, methodologies and governance easy to reach and digest. Produce tutorials. Be available to provide help to those who need it. "Teach them how to fish". |
Guide | Orientation - kelps participants navigate the digital environment, projects, where to start, what to do, etc. Operates at the project level and network level. | Helper, empathic, good orientation | Maintain maps of the digital environment of project or network, designs guided tours, tutorials, helps newcomers. |
Harvester | Extract interesting or important information from exchanges among contributors (take notes), synthesize, operationalize, document with public view, make sure everyone is aware of it. | Information hungry, synthesis abilities, organized, structured, empathic (sensitive to others' needs), good listener. | Pro-active in communication channels, meetings, reads documentation produced, maintains documentation (structure, format, make clear) |
Outreach | Social media | Communications skills | Create and maintain communications strategy. Create and maintain communications material designed for different types of media channels. Create and maintain communications plans. Execute communications plans, disseminate information, needs, offers. Engage the network in these activities, as well as more distant followers. |
Process designer | Designs and documents processes. | Process oriented, attention to details, emphatic (understand how people feel, what they need) | Make sure people know about processes and procedures, that they are well documented and accessible, provide support, gather feedback and improve processes. Spot and eliminate roadblocks and bottlenecks. Increase stigmergy. Increase synergy. |
Representative | Principal point of contact, mediator of relations between the open network and third parties. The network can have many mediators, depending on the complexity of relations it maintains with the larger environment. There can be representatives that are maintaining relations with funding agencies, with governments, with academia, with open source communities, with the private sector, etc. The representative is usually a trusted figure for the third party engaged, as well as for the network. Operates at the project level and network level. | Reliable, trustworthy, sociable | Maintain relations with partners. Set expectations, communicate expectations to the network, surface pain points and address them properly. Negotiate. |
Mediator | Assists with conflict resolution | Empathic, trustworthy, understanding of ethos and governance | Monitor mood and harmony in groups or at the network level, anticipate conflicts and diffuse them. Provide support for conflict resolution processes. |
Technical support | Assists other participants with their technical needs, about the products of the network (infrastructure and applications, devices) as well as about the tools used for collaboration, that compose the digital environment. Operates at the project level and network level. | Focus on technical issues. | Build and maintain good documentation, tutorials, manuals. Monitor communications channels and jump to help when someone requests it. |
Designer | Performing design activities. Operates at the project level. | Creative, attentive to needs, collaborative | Produces digital representations of physical objects, prototypes, products. |
Developer Hardware | Perform hardware development activities, mechanics, electronics, optics, ... Operates at the project level. | Focus on technical issues, collaborative | Executes technical designs |
Developer Software | Perform software development activities, write code. Operates at the project level. | Focus on technical issues. | Writes code, applications, etc. |
CUSTODIAN | Trusted individual or organization that holds assets that are used by participants, a trust. Ex. someone that holds the credentials to an account of an online tool, individual/organization that holds funds, etc. Operates at the project level and network level. | Trustworthy, reliable. | Hold important assets in a way that all contributors have access, according to governance. |
Rationale
Sensorica is the network that has proposed, designed and implemented and refined the OVN model. Since Sensorica’s inception in early 2011, we have observed different types of involvement and contributions, which can help us define different types of affiliation.
On passive involvement
Some individuals that are on our mailing list and have access to our private database (most of them only View access) have been very passive. It is hard to know if they actually follow us regularly and if they absorb information (todo: do a survey). It is also hard to know if they propagate this information through their social networks. In fact, it is hard to know what they do with the information they absorb.
On negative involvement
We have NOT observed yet any deliberate destructive action of tangible property.
In the spring of 2014 Sensorica had a first crisis around the use of brand and around its core values and principles. Bob created this document to help the community analyse this crisis and learn from it.
In the summer of 2014 Sensorica went through a second crisis around the question of sustaining the commons. Tibi created this document to help the community create new norms and rules. Some individuals engaged in negative publicity about Sensorica.
Involvement and time
- Intense: almost daily contributions, very committed
- Availability driven: contributions are sporadic, based on availability
- Interest driven: almost certain of a response if the right topic arises (Ex. Kurt, whenever there is an issue about value systems, governance,...)
- Unpredictable: difficult to know when and why a network AFFILIATE makes a contribution
- propose others...
Member vs AFFILIATE
Tibi [Jan 2021]:
Note that the terms “member” and “membership” have been purged from our language. No agent is considered “member” of the Sensorica OVN or of a venture (which is also an OVN).
We can say that the relation between participants in an OVN is one of free affiliation. Peers in an OVN can be called AFFILIATEs.
The distinction between “member” and “AFFILIATE” is IMPORTANT.
We are members of something, and that assumes 2 ontological levels, the agent and an organization of which the agent is part of. The term “member” is semantically charged within the traditional paradigm, it is associated with a hierarchy: members are subject to the organization, or subject to the will of those who are in control of the organization, through instituted power relations (positions of power). Membership does not imply automatically that members have a say on how the organisation is governed: being a member of Facebook or Twitter.
Being AFFILIATEs suggests relations among peers, from which the organization emerges. The organization is an emergent property of a number of peers interacting, establishing rules of engagement among themselves and enacting them. The organization is not there and I become a member of it. My engagement with my peers and every interaction among peers are the organization at any given moment in time. The organization is created at every instant from the totality of interactions among members. The organization is the swarm. I am a participant in a swarm, I contribute to the swarm, I am NOT a member of a swarm.
The first structure proposed
Replaced with the second structure proposed above.
unAFFILIATEd
Individuals or organizations that do not take part of activities in any way, but might have access to public information about Sensorica and observe it from far away.
Permissions: Only have access to public information through the Sensorica website and social media outlets.
Integration process: Anyone out there is a non-AFFILIATEd
observers
Individuals or organizations that have not contribute to Sensorica venturess in a tangible way, or their contributions are not concrete enough to be taken into consideration, or have contributed but do not want to be involved directly. If the individual records a contribution in the value accounting system he/she becomes a member or active member. Observers follow Sensorica activities regularly for different reasons and are recognized by Sensorica members for doing so. In other words, observers are known by Sensorica members, not anonymous.
Permissions: Have access to Sensorica database, to Sensorica’s main communication channel, and some activities, like meetings and presentations.
Integration process: Anyone can become an observer. The individual or the organization must only talk to at least one member or active member of Sensorica. The entire Sensorica community must be informed of new observers. If you want to become an observer contact the community or one of its members. You can also follow our activities on wiki, G+/Value Networks, G+/Sensorica, Facebook, Github,...
members
Individuals or organizations that have already contributed to Sensorica in the past, but have become inactive, or that have expressed their willingness to contribute to Sensorica venturess but have not contributed with anything meaningful/tangible yet. Members are more than observers, in that they got or will get involved in some activities, and maintain strong relations with some Sensorica active members.
Permissions: Have access to nonpublic Sensorica information. Can participate in some activities like meetings and presentations. Have access to some or all Sensorica communication systems. Participate in decision making.
Integration process: If you want to become a member just contact the community or one of its members. All members have a profile and are listed here. Members need to adhere to the principles behind the value accounting system.
active members
Individuals or organizations that are contributing to Sensorica in a meaningful way, being recognized by other Sensorica members for doing so.
Permissions: Have access to all Sensorica infrastructure as owners of the infrastructure.
Integration process: Anyone who can contribute to Sensorica in a tangible way, to increase the market value of products designed and manufactured by Sensorica or to help sustain and improve the Sensorica community, its image, etc., AND is recognized by Sensorica members for being able to do so can become an active member. If think you can contribute contact the community or one of its members. All active members have a profile and are listed here. Members need to adhere to the principles behind the value accounting system.
What is a value network?
(click to open)
Discussions
From Kurt 01 July 2012
And what does becoming an AFFILIATE mean? What is the ritual? What obstacles does this create? What benefits does putting the obstacle there serve? Is there a formal agreement?
Tibi 01 July 2012
I think becoming an AFFILIATE is just filling up the form http://www.Sensorica.co/home/contact-us
selecting Possible collaboration.
But yes, you make me realize that we need to make that more clear!
Becoming an active AFFILIATE is an automatic process, whenever someone logs a contribution and this contribution is accepted by others as valuable.
We probably need to think about some form of ritual, to mark the passage. This can be orchestrated by someone who takes on the role of animator.
There should be some sort of formal agreement... at least an acknowledgment of responsibilities.
What is the degree of openness and transparency? We need to set that knob. I believe in keeping some things private, but not protected. Whoever needs to look at them needs to present him-/herself.
Tibi, July 15th 2012
There are also other types of structures, which are related to interests and proximity. see this discussion : a short reflection on value networks. See other discussions on the same topic initiated by Steve.
Tibi July 14th 2012
(…) rhizomatic structure of Sensorica. I think a value network like Sensorica must have at least two levels, local and global. This needs to be reflected at the level of the value system.
Example: Maintenance of a space (a lab for example) mostly use by locals. (...) But who benefits? Mostly locals. It is also true that maintaining a clean and organized work environment here in Montreal will affect the entire network. Most of the value within Sensorica, at this moment, emanates from this space (I hope things will change in the future and that value creation will become a more distributed process, to reflect a truly resilient network). But should this particular contribution (cleaning and organizing the space at CTS in Montreal) be logged on Sensorica, or should we have a local value system which integrates with other local value systems, forming a glocal value system, a rhizomatic structure?
I was thinking of value networks as being fractal structures (an open value network can be an AFFILIATE of another open value network). This is also part of the growth model. A value network could be defined as a set of activities that are organized around a cluster of interests. Sensorica is structured around sensing, interests around sensors are powerful enough to structure our activities. Sensorica will probably become a network of two networks, one structured by interests around sensing and sensemaking for agriculture and food and another one around sensor technology for biomedical applications. So we have a structure emerging from clusters of interests.
BUT to topic of this message is to point out to a second structure, which is driven by physical proximity. Steve already pointed out to us the need to distinguish between the local network and the global network. (...) Proximity and local context sets in motion a particular dynamic that can be different than what goes on in other locations, hence Sensorica is a rhizomatic structure, but also daily local activities can generate gains and losses that affect mostly locals, and less remote AFFILIATEs of the network.
Please take a moment to reflect on that...
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Alternatives The Alternatives box enumerates possible solutions to consider. ... |
Reasoning The Reasoning box presents arguments about possible choices. ... |
Information The Information box tells you how stuff works. ... |
Growing consensus The Growing consensus box is a summary of a section of this report ... |
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[1] Means Network Resource Planning and Contribution Accounting system, used by the OVN to conduct its business or activities.
[2] Sensorica uses a red flag rule, i.e. if a contribution logged in the NRP-CAS by an active AFFILIATE is not red flagged or disputed by another AFFILIATE, this contribution is considered valid and can be used as a claim to benefits.